Dead Quiet
by Trisha
Summary: SPOILERS FOR DEAD AND GONE. Set several weeks after the events of D&G. Eric/Sookie. An attempt to answer some questions raised at the end of the book. This time, Sookie is in charge. NOW COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

**Dead Quiet by Trisha**

**Spoilers for Dead and Gone. Please do not read this if you do not want to be spoiled. Reviews are more than welcome, negative or positive. This is an Eric/Sookie story. I doubt it will get racy but it might get somewhat dark. The Sookieverse and everything relating belongs to Charlaine Harris, of course.**

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**Chapter One**

In the dark of my bedroom, the green display on my alarm clock glowed 2:00 am so brightly, it seemed to be rubbing in the fact that I was still awake. As if I wasn't hyper aware of that fact. Which I was. Watching the time change minute-by-minute. Not sleeping. Not doing anything else one might do in a bed at two in the morning. I'd been this way for the last week.

The plain fact of it was that I couldn't sleep because I was worried about Eric. As ridiculous as it might seem to worry about the well-being of a vampire as old and powerful as he, I couldn't seem to help it. And it's not like I didn't have worries enough of my own. My wounds from my time in the care of Things One and Two were mostly healed but I still flinched whenever my fingers ran over those places, feeling hurts that ached only in memory.

And they ached hard.

I saw Eric several times- several nights- in the weeks following the end of the Fairy War. He shared as much of his blood with me as he could. It helped. And then he told me he couldn't come to see me for a while. Or rather, he told my answering machine. He said I needed to rest. He said he was taking a trip to Nevada at the invitation of the king, something about an official ceremony to designate his new standing with Felipe at Felipe's home court.

This rang true but it also set off some warning bells. I'd thought Eric's position with the new regime was already being settled right over in Shreveport, what with Victor hanging around and Sandy there too. But vampires are big into their ceremonies and formalities so the bells were pretty low-key. I'd admit to a little hurt than Eric hadn't invited me but that hurt ended the minute I considered the way Felipe and Victor had tried to co-opt me to use my disability to their own advantage. In Nevada. Away from my home and my job and my life.

Every time I considered what could have happened if Eric hadn't used the marriage knife the way he had, I shivered. Not that he was entirely in the right there! Far from it. Maybe if he'd reached me when he tried to call, he would have tried to explain, to prepare me. Maybe. Or maybe not. But with Eric, the idea of lesser evils is always popping up. I hadn't seen or heard from him since he'd left, weeks ago. Or from Pam either, which didn't help with the worrying.

2:03. I groaned and sat up. I needed to sleep. Eric wasn't wrong there. The pain might have disappeared but I still got a bit dizzy from time to time. I stood slowly, letting my flannel night gown fall around my legs. There was cocoa in the kitchen. It seemed like a night for a nice, hot cup.

I shot a glance at the ceiling as I walked into the kitchen. Amelia had left for New Orleans, for a visit I thought might end up becoming permanent. I missed her more than I'd thought I might, though she'd taken Tray's death so hard, I couldn't do anything but be glad she was gone. She said she needed time away from the places where they'd spent time together. I'd once felt the same about my shower, in a less tragic sense.

The cocoa did its trick, putting comfort into my body with its sweet warmth. I wrapped both hands around the mug and walked to the living room, just wandering. The dark was nice. I could see very well and that didn't startle me. The effects from Eric's blood would last longer this time, he had said. I had to be okay with that when the alternative was to be scarred for life.

I went to the window and realized I was looking for Eric's pale face to reflect back at me. It didn't. Glancing toward the cemetery, I wondered where Bill had gotten to. I assumed he'd gone to ground like he had before, getting himself healed. The weirdness of weeks without seeing a single vampire was starting to itch at me.

I could call Pam. I'd called a few weeks ago and left a message asking about Dr. Ludwig's bill, which had been paid in full. She never called back and I figured Eric had told her to give me some time. I found my phone beside the couch and punched the number for Fangtasia. It rang. And rang. And rang. No one answered and it didn't go to the answering machine like usual.

Hum. Now that was not right. Fangtasia was always open when the sun was down. Eric wouldn't have it any other way. Either someone was dropping the ball with their master out of town (and I seriously doubted that, knowing Pam) or something was wrong in a serious way.

I hemmed and hawed for a bit as I got dressed. I had to work the night shift and so I really couldn't go anywhere… except that I was hardly sleeping anyway. But if Eric and the vampire contingent needed me, they would call, right? And did I really want to get myself put in the middle of their vampire shit again? I was barely healed from my last supernatural adventure. I winced from remembered pain as I pulled my hair back into its customary ponytail and reached for my shoes, each pair placed neatly on the closet floor. I chose sneakers. It was not a night to worry about looking cute. After lacing them up, I hesitated, looking down at my car keys in my hand.

I was scared to go. I didn't want to get hurt again. But I couldn't spend another day pretending I wasn't worrying about Eric. My feelings for him might not be entirely clear but they weren't entirely _not_ clear either. And I had acknowledged that he was my guy. I had to go because I cared about Eric and even if nothing was wrong, the whole "giving me time to heal" card was about played out.

I left a note on my kitchen table, just in case, saying where I'd gone. If I'd learned nothing else since inviting Bill into my life, it was that back-up measures never hurt.

The drive to Shreveport was long. My sweaty hands slid over the steering wheel. I remembered making the drive in the passenger seat of Eric's Corvette, of how quickly he'd sped around each curve. He drives like he makes love, I thought, then wondered at the "love" part. Well, something like that. I really hoped that I wouldn't find anyone bleeding at Fangtasia- at least, anyone bleeding who didn't want to be. And I really, really hoped I'd make it home again without bleeding myself.

The parking lot at Fangtasia isn't large and it was undeniably empty. I drove past it once, looking hard at the building. Nothing seemed unusual other than the dark sign. I thought about whether I should park my car there or not. If someone was watching, it would be a dead give-away that I was inside. But there was really no way to leave it down the street without having to walk, unprotected, through the dark. I pulled around to the employee entrance and parked square in front of the door, as close to the building as I could get.

I paused before opening my car door, sending out my extra sense to search for people inside. Nothing. The door was unlocked, which sent a spiral of ice down my spine. I made my way in the dark to Eric's office. I didn't know what I was looking for. Something inside my brain shouted at me to leave. I felt like that dumb girl in the movies who walks alone in the woods when the audience knows the monster is waiting behind the next tree. If I had an audience, I thought they would be kicking my ass right about now. But I had to know. What was I supposed to do, just go home and wait some more? It occurred to me that sometimes, "stupid" and "gutsy" are two different words for the same thing.

Eric always kept his office neat as a pin. Even when I'd been sick unto death, lying on his couch, I'd noticed the tidiness. A sign of an orderly mind, my teacher used to say, was a tidy desk. And Eric's desk was completely bare.

I went around to the far side of the desk and sat in his chair, half-wishing I were psychic. It occurred to me that I should maybe phone Alcide and see if he could send over someone to smell the place. What good was it to be owed a favor if I never called it in? But with Tray's ghost hanging over my head (not literally), I didn't feel quite right about calling before I was sure I needed help. Tray may have been something of a lone wolf but that didn't make him any less one of the pack.

I ran my hands over the smooth wood of Eric's desk. I didn't know what kind of wood it was but it was rich and smooth. And cool as Eric's own skin. A pang went through me, so strong that I pressed my fist into my chest. Taking a deep breath, I got control of myself. Eric's tough and old and canny as hell, I reminded myself sternly.

"It would sure be nice if there were a note called 'What to do if I disappear' in here somewhere," I muttered, opening the side drawers and peering inside. It was too dark to make out much so I pulled the chain on the desk lamp. The bottom drawer held files, mostly on accounting and supplies. The other two were your basic desk drawers, holding pens and sticky pads and white-out and other office stuff. My lip quirked up at the sight of the sticky pads. It was hard to picture Eric, Mr. Ancient Viking Stud-Man, posting himself little reminders.

The long drawer over the leg area looked normal but when I tugged on it, it opened. _Uh-oh_, I thought, as I knew for a fact that Eric kept this one locked. I didn't think it ever held anything super important because, well, Eric's no dummy and it's a pretty obvious hiding place. But all the same, it had held something important enough to lock up.

Had held, because it was empty. _Bad sign,_ I thought. If my stomach sank any lower, it would be in my pretty, pink toenails. Sure, it was possible that Eric had decided to close the bar while he was out of town. And not tell me. And leave his doors unlocked. And clean out his drawer. And spirit Pam and Bill away. Possible, but not likely. The way my life went, I had to figure on the worst possibility being the truth of any situation. This had trouble written all over it.

I stood to leave but paused as my extra sense picked up someone headed in from the bar area. A Were, I thought. Could be really good, could be really bad. I ducked under the desk even knowing that any Were worth his fur would smell me in a hot second.

I recognized the feel of his mind before I heard his voice. "It's Quinn," he said and sat on the couch. I think he was trying to make himself non-threatening after our last encounter. In Eric's dead-empty bar, it did not help, but I crawled out anyway.

I was too shaken up to dissemble. "What the hell is going on?" I demanded, standing in front of him with my arms wrapped around my middle.

Quinn's face was somber in the half-light. "Felipe sent me."

I figure he thought I wouldn't want to hear anything more. Maybe that was his way of not helping Eric 'cause I was pretty sure that helping the man he thought stole me away was last on his list of priorities.

"Okay," I said, trying not to give anything away with my voice. "Sent you for what?"

Something moved across Quinn's face, something that looked an awful lot like pity. He opened his mouth, shut it again, and shook his head. "Sookie… Eric has been sentenced to death. They're executing him tomorrow night."

The look on my face must've been one big, shocked question, because Quinn went right on to say, "For failure to adhere to the King's ruling that placed you under the vampire's protection."

I'd dropped to my knees before I realized I'd hit the ground. "Quinn, that doesn't make any sense at all. I called for help and Eric sent Bubba. And that's the only time, ever, when I asked for official protection."

"That may be true but Felipe is calling on the spirit of the agreement, not just the letter." Quinn sighed, rubbing his hands over his bald head. He leaned back on the couch and leveled a straight gaze my way. "I'm the last damn person who should be here talking about this, Sookie. But they thought you'd believe me over one of them."

_You are one of them_, I thought, somewhat unfairly, before I could stop myself. I reminded myself to step cautiously. "I don't understand you. They think Eric didn't protect me?"

Quinn's lips tightened into a straight, thin line. "Felipe wants you. And Victor wants to bring you to Felipe because it will raise him up in the eyes of his King, even more so than he is already. But Eric…" Quinn's fists clenched. "Eric made sure they couldn't touch you. You know how."

He made that last part sound so dirty, I clenched my own fists, to keep myself under control. "And?" I asked carefully.

"You've gotta understand, Sookie, these vampires, they can't let Eric put a single toe across the line of obedience. They let him live because they thought he was useful but there were plenty of vamps in Felipe's court who thought that was a mistake. Maybe they wanted Eric's area or maybe they just don't like him. Not everyone thinks he walks on water, you know."

I let that remark go. "And they think he was disobedient over me?"

"What they think and what they claim to think are probably two different things. Felipe has been convinced that leaving Eric in charge of Area 5 was a mistake. Eric's claim on you should have been something Felipe could maneuver around but Eric blocked him when he tried. He knows now that Eric is not ever going to be the King's animal. And he still wants you, for your skills, for your… for whatever."

_Bad. Really bad. _I wiped my hands on my knees. "Is all this true? I mean, is Eric really still alive or are you just telling me that? I don't know why they wouldn't just kill him on the spot, if they think that he's so much trouble."

Quinn leaned toward me. "I swear he is still alive. Or at least, he was when I left Nevada. Vampires don't kill each other lightly, you know that. Since they didn't kill him during the take-over, they need to process this whole thing in an official way. Felipe told Victor to stick close to Eric and arrest him at the first legit opportunity. So, Victor waited. And when Bill phoned and told Eric that you'd been… that there was trouble, Victor was present and heard everything."

_Thanks, Bill,_ I thought. Yeah, more of me being unfair but I figured some unfairness was allowed tonight. "And then what happened?" I said, the ache in my stomach growing hotter. "I knew there was a reason Eric couldn't come for me but I didn't know what it was."

"Victor arrested him the minute that call ended. Bill didn't know. Victor claimed that Eric had been asked to protect you when he sent Bubba and that he should have maintained that protection until the danger had passed. Bill was with you but not by Eric's doing. At least not directly."

"How did Victor arrest Eric? I saw him after that and he didn't tell me any of this. And besides, Victor may be strong and all but Eric's not exactly a pussy cat."

Quinn snorted. "Every vampire in Fangtasia would have been at Victor's command. His word supersedes Eric's. And after Eric was under control, Victor made a deal with him. Eric agreed to attend a tribunal in Nevada under the condition that he would be allowed to remain free- under watch, but free- in his area until you were rescued and healed."

No wonder Eric had been so choked up about not being able to come for me. Things in my brain began to click into place. "So once I was healed up enough to go back to work, they arranged the date and Eric had to go. Why didn't he just run away?"

"He had to go," Quinn said, almost grudgingly. "If he hadn't, he would have been declared rogue and killed on sight, anywhere he went."

And that was why Pam had said Eric lived on in me. They all knew he was a dead man. They all knew but me. I had to think but my mind was racing. "Pam? Bill?"

"Pam's with Eric," Quinn said. "But she's not in trouble. They know Eric's child has to do his bidding. She's staying near his… his cell. I don't know where Bill's gotten to."

An image popped into my mind of vibrant, active Eric locked in a cage like a beast. At least Pam was there. "What…" My words cracked and I stop and shook my head. Standing carefully, I made my way back to Eric's desk. On the wall behind the desk, I noticed a shallow dent in the plaster. It was ringed with dried blood that held a single blond hair. Eric's or possibly Pam's, I guessed. Beside the dent was Eric's Fangtasia calendar. I opened it to January and stood in front of it but closed my eyes. I didn't need a photograph. I could see him far more clearly in my mind. And in my mind, he was looking back at me, his eyes glacial and unrelenting.

"What am I supposed to do now?" I whispered without turning around.

Quinn cleared his throat. "Felipe sent me to tell you that as Eric's spouse, you will be sent his ashes and personal affects."

I turned slowly. "Tell Felipe I will come and get them myself."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

I got in my car and started for home. What else could I do? Quinn watched me drive away. Five minutes down the road, my cell phone rang. I pulled over so quickly, I could smell the heat from the tires. My heart beat faster when I saw Quinn's number just as it sank with disappointment that it wasn't Eric phoning, or Pam, to tell me this story was all a bunch of horse shit.

"Yes?" I said, listening hard, my temple pressed against the cool glass of the window.

"Felipe asked me to call you." Quinn sounded oddly hesitant.

"Don't you think I've already heard enough?" I asked, making my voice as cold as it could get.

"He is willing to allow you to come see Eric. He's chartered us a helicopter to get you from your house to the airport and from there, to Las Vegas on a private jet." Quinn paused. I could hear him adjust his hand on the phone. "You don't have to go, Sookie. But you said you were coming anyway. And if you don't…"

"If I don't, Felipe will send his cronies to come and get me." My protection from the king was only as good as Eric's strength. Meaning, not good at all, anymore. While I'd planned, over the last twenty minutes, to fly out to Nevada myself, I hadn't figured on putting myself in the care of Felipe and his gang.

Quinn knew what I was thinking. "I'll go with you," he said. "No strings attached. You don't have to be scared of him."

I could hear what it cost Quinn to say that. To offer his protection to me knowing it would allow me to be with Eric, even if only one last time. "And you'll help me up till the point when the vamps threaten your mom and Frannie. If they do, then I'll be chopped liver again. What other assurances do I have that I'm not gonna show up there just to be forced into a blood bond with someone or worse?"

"Pam," Quinn said quickly. "Felipe is going to allow her to guard you. He knows her loyalty is to Eric but he can't touch her, legally, because she's only following his orders as she must."

Pam was my friend. Somewhere not too long ago, she'd fallen into that category without qualifiers. Pam was sworn to Eric but she was also sworn to the king. If push came to shove, I didn't know which vow she'd honor. It'd sure be putting her into a tough spot and I was suddenly sure that Felipe knew that.

But it was the best possible deal I would get unless Bill showed up healthy enough- and willing- to join me. "Pam will be there when I get off the plane? Or as close to it as possible?"

"She'll be there as soon as it's dark. I'll make sure of it." Quinn sounded relieved. That made me wonder what sort of bribe or threat it took to make him come all the way to Shreveport to lay this news on me.

I turned the key in the ignition and maneuvered the car back onto the road. "I'll be ready in three hours," I said and snapped the phone shut.

***

Packing was quick and simple. A single, small suitcase did the trick and I filled it in about thirty seconds. I brought it out to the living room, then thought again and went back to my bedroom. I wanted to bring Eric something. It was an impulse I didn't put much thought into. The ceremonial knife came to mind straightaway but that was impossible. I was sure Eric had it hidden someplace and equally as sure the Nevada vamps would never allow him to have it. Plus it didn't really make the statement I was aiming at. I scanned my room for a minute and then grabbed the ugly quilt my grandmother had made. Eric and I had once relaxed under this quilt together in front of the fire. I never thought I'd consider the days we'd spent together when Eric was under his curse to be simple but maybe it would remind him of better times.

The quilt was large. I needed a duffle bag to carry it in. Since Octavia had left, I'd reverted to using the closet in her room for storage. Though dawn was breaking into day, the closet was too dark for me to find the bag without knocking everything else down from the top shelf. I tugged on the light and stepped inside. Under my foot, the carpet felt unusually lumpy. I peeled it back from where it was cut out for the hidey-hole and found a lumpy manila envelope.

_I knew he wouldn't just vanish on me,_ I thought, perching on the edge of the bed. The envelope contained several things; I dumped them all out on the bedspread. Two envelopes and a small box had been inside. When I saw the writing on the front of the first envelope, my heart sank just a little. It was not from Eric but rather, from Bill. _Sookie _was all it said. The second envelope had been through the mail, sent to Bill from Fangtasia. I opened that one first. It was from Pam.

_If you've found this, then you know, so I won't run on. Trust no one, Sookie, but perhaps Bill. I do not know what will happen but I do know, Eric has done all he can for you. Note those last two words: for you. I'll do what I can as well but sorry to say, you are on your own. Go far away and go now._

I felt tears prickle at the corner of my eyes. Pam is so… Pam. I couldn't follow her advice even though a big part of me wanted to. It was the "for you" part that pushed me forward. I tore open the other envelope.

_Sookie, sweetheart,_

_Despite what Pam writes, you are not alone. I must heal but then I will come to you. Eric made me swear not to tell you the truth and to be honest, I thought that for the best. You cannot stop this. I will be with you, protecting you, as soon as I am able._

_Love…_

Protection, well, I could use some of that. But maybe a bit of hope would be good. I wondered if it was too much to ask for and thought it very well could be under the circumstances. I thought of Sophie-Anne and her lost reign. I thought of Eric, helpless. The image just would not stick.

Reaching for the small box, I slid off its cardboard lid. And nearly dropped the whole thing when I saw what was inside. It was a tiny dagger, an exact replica of the ceremonial dagger, made miniature and placed on a white gold chain. I took it out of the box and put it on. The chain was long enough to allow the dagger to drop out of sight underneath my blouse. It was from Eric. It had to be. He didn't write me a note but he didn't leave me with nothing either.

***

I watched Bon Temps vanish into the forest from the helicopter window, wondering if anyone had woken up at the sound it had made when it landed in my yard. It was my first time in a helicopter but I barely noticed any of the details. I was that intent on reaching Nevada. That scared, really, but I stiffened my spine and steeled myself for whatever laid ahead.

It occurred to me to call Jason and let him know what was happening but I dismissed that thought as quickly as it had occurred. Jason had his own troubles and a tendency to add on to mine. I would've given an awful lot to talk to Sam but with how _thrilled_ he'd been about me and Eric, and also, that he'd want to come along to keep an eye on me, I couldn't do it. It would've been nice to have him with me but I wasn't willing to endanger him that way. I had sent him a text to tell him that I wouldn't be able to work for the next week or so. I made sure not to send it until I was climbing into the helicopter.

The private jet waited on the runway. Quinn was already inside. I climbed the stairs and sat beside him, not out of choice so much as necessity as the rest of the jet was open. I guessed that was to allow space for passenger coffins. I wondered if Eric had ridden in one when he'd been taken from Shreveport to Las Vegas. I wish I were psychic, so I could tell if he'd been in this very plane. It wouldn't have made any difference other than reminding me that he still existed in my world. _No, don't go there,_ I told myself and looked up at Quinn.

Quinn looked back at me and opened his mouth but no words came out. We sat in silence at the jet took off and rose up through the clouds. At this point, I began to realize how tired I was. It had been well over a week since I'd had a full night of sleep and I was still not fully recovered from my time with the fairy duo. I figured it was safe enough to sleep on the plane, especially since Quinn seemed very intent on not speaking to me. The weight of the tiny dagger was warm on my chest. It comforted me.

When I awoke, the plane was landing. The sunshine streamed in through the windows. Looking at my watch, I saw it had only been a few hours since I'd left my house. It was late morning in Nevada. I wondered what we'd do until the vampires woke up for the night.

A limo waited on the runway, its trunk open and waiting. Quinn stowed away my bags and opened the door for me. I got in, careful not to brush against him. He followed and then shut the door firmly, maybe even a bit too firmly. The sound made me jump. I couldn't see the driver, which also made me nervous. From the feel of his brain, I knew he was a human, of the regular type, with no accessories like mine.

"Don't worry, it's a normal limo service," Quinn said quietly, clipping on his seatbelt as the car began to move. "Luxury Airport Express."

"I wasn't worried," I lied, sitting up so straight my back hurt.

"It'll take us to the hotel. Victor took care of the details. You have a room to yourself but Pam could stay there too, I guess."

"Where is Pam?" I'd feel a lot better when I saw her. I thought. Probably.

"She'll meet us at the hotel after sunset." He gave me a glimpse of a smile. "Mr. Cataliades will meet us in the lobby. I called him a few days ago. He requested to stay with you until Pam Is up. So, no surprises."

"Okay," I said, softening towards him just a little. "Thanks for that."

Quinn sighed and put his hand on my arm. "Sookie, I've got to tell you, I'm sorry for this whole thing."

"Let's not do that, Quinn. This just isn't the time. Maybe down the road. Maybe. But definitely not now." I moved my arm softly from beneath his hand.

He let his hand fall to his lap. "Just so that you know."

"I do know." The limo pulled into the driveway of an enormous hotel. It was squarish, at least ten stories tall and very, very orange. Mr. Cataliades stood by the doors with Diantha beside him. I was so glad to see them that I opened the door the minute the engine stopped. At least I knew (or thought I knew) that they were on my side.

"Miss Stackhouse," Mr. Cataliades said, taking a step towards me. "How lovely to see you again."

I smiled at him and looked toward Diantha to include her as well. "How're you both doing?"

Diantha grinned at me, showing off her pointy teeth. Though it had never bothered me before, today the sight made me shudder inwardly. Neave's face flashed through my mind. I pushed the bad memories away as quickly and as far as I could. This was not the time for a breakdown.

Quinn handed me my duffle bag; Mr. Cataliades took up the suitcase. As we walked into the hotel doors, I stopped so suddenly, poor Diantha ran right into my back. Terrible emotions overwhelmed me. I dropped down on my hands and knees, hanging my head and gasping. _Eric_. Through the pain, I was aware of a high keening sound; it was me, and I sounded awful. "What are they doing to him?" I gasped through clenched teeth as Quinn scooped me up into his arms. Because it was the bond. It had to be.

"Sookie, let that wait for later." Quinn carried me through the lobby and turned left, down a long hallway overdone in the southern motif. I was vaguely aware of Diantha following us. Then I gave in to the feelings and everything went black.

***

When I woke up again, I was laying in an enormous bed, fully clothed. It was dark in the room but enough light came in from a streetlamp outside the window that I could see Pam, sitting on the bed beside me. She was having downtime. I was so relieved to see her, I didn't move for a moment, just watched her face as she came out of her… whatever it was… and saw that I was awake.

"Sookie," she said. "You're alright. We gave you something to numb the bond."

Her voice was so solemn, so lacking in dryness, I winced. Then I focused inwardly for a moment, enough to feel that yes, the bond was numb. So numb, in fact, that it might as well have not existed at all. "Is it gone?" I asked, surprised at myself for feeling unsettled about it.

"That is for the best right now," Pam said, her eyes wide. "And for the best when they…" She swallowed then, hard.

I'd never seen Pam show even a tenth this much emotion. And I felt it all along with her. "How is he?"

"That's not a good question to ask right now."

I should have known that. "How did they make him feel so much pain during his daytime sleep?"

Pam shook her head. "I promised him that I wouldn't tell you."

"So he knows I'm coming? That I'm here?"

"He knows they will try to bring you here. I can't imagine he could feel much through the bond before we numbed it and now, of course, he'd feel nothing at all." Pam stood up without even shaking the bed and took a bottle of True Blood from the mini-fridge across the room. Taking a long drink, she seemed to be considering me over the rim of the bottle. "Sookie, I don't know what to tell you. It's bad, as bad as anything we've been through. I've seen Eric overcome the odds hundreds of times but the things they are doing… well. When they finish the execution, finally, I hope it will bring you some peace to know that Eric will welcome the sun."

I shot up in bed only to keel over the minute my feet hit the floor. So I sat instead, but as straight as I could manage. "Pam," I said very deliberately, "Screw that!"

She shook her head. "Sookie…"

"No, screw that! Screw all of this! Y'all can't bring me all this way, go through all the shit we've gone through, only to have it end up with a big ole Eric barbeque." I glared at her. "I can't believe you're just gonna sit back and let this happen."

She bared her fangs and hissed at me in a way that had me scooting back against the pillows. "I am not just sitting back. But think, Sookie. Think how many of them we are facing. And where could we take him, even if we could rescue him? He's a mess. He can't even sit up, much less walk out of here."

"I don't know," I said, deflated. The knot that had been growing in my stomach since I called Fangtasia and got no answer seemed to double in size. I felt like I was choking on it. Tears welled up in my eyes and I growled at them as I rubbed them away. "What am I supposed to do?"

Pam relaxed a little and took another sip of her True Blood. "Victor will come for you any minute. He wants to earn credit by being the one who presents you to the king. I will stay by your side. Victor will take us to Felipe's throne room for a formal meeting."

"He has a throne room?" I thought for a minute. "Are you sure you should be leaving Eric? Not that I don't appreciate you watching out for me but doesn't he need you more?"

Pam stared at me without saying a word for a minute. I grew uncomfortable under her gaze. Finally, she said, "Sookie, I would rather stay with anyone than go watch what's being done to him."

I sucked in a breath. "Can I see him?" I asked, half-hoping she'd say no.

She threw the bottle into a small garbage can, gently for a vampire. "I'm very much afraid that before the night is over, you will be made to see him. And then you will wish you'd taken my advice and stayed as far away as you could get. Eric would not be pleased to have you see him as he is right now."

Pam cocked her head sharply, listening. Before I could ask her anything else, Victor strode in through the door without bothering to knock. "I trust I'm not interrupting anything?" he asked as he entered the room. He scrutinized me carefully. "I heard you had a bit of a problem but you look like you're feeling better now." He smiled at me.

I did not smile back. "What is the plan?" I asked him, standing up. Somehow, I didn't feel quite comfortable- or safe- resting on the bed with Victor within arm's reach. He had the coldest smile I'd ever seen.

"Oh, straight to business then." He nodded at Pam. She did not nod back but she did lower her eyes for a moment. I could tell Victor didn't like that but he was more focused on me. "Sookie, you and your guard here have an appointment with Felipe in twenty minutes, upstairs. This hotel is one of his businesses; he keeps his court rotating between all of them. We'll go up and you will get to talk with him." His eyes narrowed just a touch. "I gather that's why you came here?"

"I gather so," I said, though I wasn't sure why I'd come myself, other than having very little choice in the matter. Because it felt like the right thing to do, I told myself, and slid into my shoes, which someone had very helpfully placed beside the bed.

Pam moved closer to me and took my arm, to steady me, I thought, marveling a little at how far we'd come. There'd been a time not too long ago when Pam would have thought that to help me walk was to debase herself for a human. I'm sure she still felt that way, at least a little. Tonight, though, being closer to me was not only necessary if I were going to walk anywhere, it also put her in a better guarding position. And, I realized, put me between herself and the other vampires, who were definitely more powerful at this time than Pam. And while those vamps didn't have my best interests in mind to say the least, they were sworn to keep me safe. Smart girl, that Pam.

Victor led us to an elevator and pushed the number ten. Penthouse, of course. Where else would the king hold his court? The doors slid open to reveal a room so normal, it was sort of anti-climactic. It looked like my living room, only with more expensive furniture. And a throne, of course, which is really just a big, fancy chair but when you stick a guy in it who reeks of kingliness, you have yourself a throne and your living room becomes a throne room.

And if anyone I'd ever seen embodied royalty, that person was Felipe. He sat on the exact center of his throne, neither relaxing back nor leaning forward like I might have done if faced with the spouse of someone I was in the painful process of executing. The room was empty but it had that sense of a place that had been full of activity not long before we'd entered. Indeed, I could hear movement in adjoining rooms and I had that sense of empty spaces and many of them. Felipe must have had dozens of minions ready to attend his needs. I wondered if one of those empty spaces belonged to Eric and shivered.

"Miss Stackhouse," Felipe said warmly. He held out his hand and Pam nudged me forward. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to shake it or kiss it or what. Pam solved the issue by kneeling at Victor's feet and kissing the back of his hand herself. She pulled me down along with her. I didn't kiss his hand though. Maybe I should have. Felipe certainly seemed to think so. His face gave away no emotion but the lines of it seemed cut from bronze. He jerked his head to indicate that we could rise. Pam shot up like a puppet and so I did as well though my head spun enough to make me grasp onto her arm with both hands. Felipe missed none of this. "Miss Stackhouse, are you unwell?"

Pam nudged me and said, "It's the medication, your highness. To cut off her bond. She couldn't function without it."

I didn't want him to know I'd been weakened before I ever knew Eric was in trouble so that excuse was good enough for me. I thought I should say something but I didn't know what. _Where's Eric_ seemed to be the natural thing, or _please stop hurting him_. Something like that. But I didn't know what would happen if I did, only that the words I chose right now would have an impact on the rest of my life and quite possibly on the lives of Eric and Pam as well. Assuming Eric was to have a life.

"Your highness, I came to tell you that I never had any problems with Eric protecting me. He and Pam and Bill and some of the others, they've always had my back. There's no reason to punish him for anything to do with me. He's loyal to you. He thinks you are forward-thinking and clever. Please let him go." I cleared my throat and stared just shy of Felipe's eyes. "He didn't break any oaths."

Felipe considered me for a long time. It was everything I could do to stay still under the weight of his gaze. "Regretfully, I cannot release your husband. Vampire law and custom are complex things. I would not expect you to comprehend."

Disappointment sent me to my knees. I should've expected this but somewhere inside, I'd remained hopeful that if I could just see the king, this could all be made right. Pam hauled me up to my feet again. I licked my lips. "But your majesty, I…"

Felipe stood and quicker than a heartbeat, Victor was there to hand him his black cape. "I must attend a prior meeting. We shall meet again tomorrow night. Victor will bring you to me. I will grant you the favor of visiting your husband. I am sure you have much to say to him."

My mouth dropped open as I watched him move out the door. Pam tugged at me but I felt frozen in place. This was nothing to him, I realized. Just another appointment. Eric was nothing to him and neither was I. Pam's face was utterly blank, better than any poker player I'd ever seen. I started to say something to her but she shook her head. "Sookie, let's go and see Eric. They want you to know who you are dealing with." She sucked in one long, deliberate breath. "Prepare yourself."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

It turned out that Eric was not filling one of those blank spaces I'd sensed in the rooms adjoining Felipe's. I guess his royal highness didn't like to hear the people he tortured to death. Victor took us outside to a white sedan, which surprised me because I'd never known vampires to drive anything so plain. Then I thought about how utterly unremarkable it was, the kind of car no one paid any attention to. I wondered what crimes had been committed in this car.

Pam held the door open for me and I slid into the back seat. She sat beside me, tucking her knees together in the narrow place behind the driver's seat. Victor drove, whistling slightly to the radio. "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose," he sang, and glanced back at me. "Are you a Joplin fan?" he asked, cheerful as he'd been the night I met him, when he'd been the lynchpin stealing Sophie-Anne's territory. Not a good sign. I hated him more than I'd ever hated some of the creatures who'd done me worse damage. At least Debbie Pelt was up-front about it.

"Not particularly," I said, going for a cooperative-but-not-friendly vibe. Pam surprised me by singing along in a pleasant, young-sounding trill. I think she was trying to put me at ease. She ran her fingertip over the back of my hands, which were clasped together in my lap. I opened them and saw little, half-moon marks where my fingernails had dug into the skin. Yeah, I was calm, cool and collected. Right.

Victor pulled the car into the parking lot of a restaurant called Babes in Toyland. It sounded like a strip club to me (not that I know much about those but hanging around Claude and Amelia had given me some ideas). In reality, it was one of those places where kids can run around and climb on stuff and scream while their parents pretend they are eating dinner alone. _Perfect_, I thought_, just the greatest place ever for a torture chamber._ Who would notice one more scream? Unless you were a supe, but supes would know enough not to question it.

The din inside the restaurant made me wince. The kids were sure having fun. Arlene's kids had told me about playing at a place like this when they'd been to visit their grandmother in Houston. Like a McDonald's Playplace on steroids. It was hard to fathom anything sinister going on here. But then I heard something no human would notice- at least, no human without the benefit of my vamp-blood enhanced senses. A terrible sound. Somehow I knew deep down in my bones that Eric was making that sound and that he was in agony. Once I heard that, everything else felt very far away. My world narrowed on that sound.

Victor led us through the doors to the kitchen area and back into a corner. A locked door led to a set of descending stairs. The basement was very normal, with shelves storing restaurant supplies. They seemed to do a good business. No wonder Felipe was so rich; this was one of his lesser enterprises.

Pam stopped me before we followed Victor as he fumbled with his keys at a second door, this one made of steel. "Sookie…" She searched my face. "I don't know what to say to you. Whatever you see, remember that Eric did his best for you. He did not want you here."

"Let's just get this done, Pam," I said as Victor opened the door. I felt like shoving my way past him but that would've been bad. He was the last person I could afford to annoy. Or, second-to-last, I guessed. _Wonder if Felipe's been down here or if he leaves the dirty work to his minion._

The moment the door opened, a sound came through, a sort of growling wail that seemed to punch me right in my stomach. Pam slowed down but I quickened my pace and pulled away from her. She let me, of course, but I knew she didn't want me to. Pam wanted to protect me from this or, maybe, wanted to protect Eric from being seen this way. Or maybe both things.

I don't know what I'd been expecting. Silver chains, of course, and maybe bamboo shoots or metal barbs or some other tools I'd seen in movies about POW camps and the Saw movies that thrilled Amelia and sent me outside to avoid even hearing them. The room was empty but for a short, raised bed of cement in the center. On the bed, there was a casket. It was shiny like steel but I knew it was silver. It seemed to reverberate.

"You wanna see?" someone asked from the doorway, making me jump. While I'd been taking in the casket, another vampire had entered the room. She was a large woman with brown hair and a square jaw. I realized I'd seen her before, in the woods by my house the night of the take-over and after that at Fangtasia. Charlotte, that was her name. She was young, probably not much older than Hadley would be if she were still alive. Eric had put her to work in the gift shop. I'd never spoken to her but she knew who I was; I could tell. Knew and didn't particularly care.

She nodded to me. "I'll open it. It's almost time for his next dose." In her hands there were two bottles, one of True Blood, the other small and medicinal.

I had this flash of the last time I'd seen Charlotte, hocking tee-shirts and mugs with pictures that look like plain ole fangs until you pour in the hot liquid and then the fangs appear bloody. She'd struck me as about as chipper as a vampire could possibly be, even more so than Victor because she lacked his edge of suppressed violence. When Victor smiled, I felt scared down to my toes. When Charlotte smiled at me I felt like confiding in her, even over the coffin that held Eric in his agony.

Maybe that made her the more dangerous of the two.

The casket was not locked. I guess, being silver, locks weren't needed though I wondered why Eric didn't just kick it open from inside. Charlotte picked up a metal fireplace poker and used it to crack open the lid. It creaked as she maneuvered it. It was too heavy for the poker; the tip kept sliding. She frowned, trying to balance the lid enough to lift it.

I couldn't stand it, couldn't wait one more second. The lid was cold beneath my fingers as I grabbed it and pitched it upwards with all my strength. It flew open, knocking the poker across the room. Charlotte giggled nervously and stood back.

It was hard to step up to that coffin, as hard as it gets. I could hear the sounds Eric was making and though the bond was still numb, I had this sense of him inside of me, this… longing. _Suck it up, _I told myself. As I stepped forward, I closed my eyes. I gripped the side of the coffin, took a deep breath and looked down at Eric.

He looked up at me but I don't think he really saw me. His eyes were bulging, red and weary. Veins stuck out in his forehead; his mouth was open and bloodstained. He did not move other than the odd, shallow breaths he took that allowed the sounds to come out. He was naked, which must've meant his back was burned all to hell against the silver bottom of the coffin. The so-white skin of his body was covered with red stripes that could have only been made from a whip. I wondered who'd held the whip and when. But there was no obvious source of the pain.

He looked smaller, which surprised me until I realized that the only time I'd ever seen him lying down, he was in my bed. This was Eric, but not any Eric I recognized. His hair was nearly brown with grime. He looked like someone was stabbing him, only over and over without end. And the worst thing of all was that he could not even see me. I was used to the bond, I realized. Used to Eric being hyper-aware of every little thing around him, of every little emotion passing through me. All of that addictive focus he'd always put on me was now turned inward to whatever was hurting him. Or to whatever was keeping him sane.

Looking at him, something inside of me turned over. Something hard, cold and ruthless. I turned towards Pam. She was by the door where she did not have to see Eric. I thought that was smart of her and wished I hadn't seen him myself. Charlotte stood beside her. Victor must have left the room. That was a good thing. I didn't know I was about to move until my hands were around Charlotte's neck. She blinked at me and said to Pam, "I'm not supposed to hurt her. My king has decreed it. Can you do something here?"

I ignored her; so did Pam. "What is wrong with him?" I asked, not dropping my hands.

Charlotte took a step back, shaking herself out of my grasp. "It's this," she said, holding up the smaller bottle. "I mix this in his True Blood. It's a silver tincture. Very pure. It kills him after enough doses. Or sometimes, if the whole bottle is taken, they die right away."

Pam growled. "It is an abomination to use that on our own."

"It's not exactly my choice," Charlotte retorted. "I'm just following orders."

I could not take my eyes off of the little bottle. It just looked so normal. "I've seen someone poisoned by silver before. Bill didn't seem to be … I mean, it wasn't like this."

"This is a fairy mixture. They have their own little ways," Charlotte said and she smiled at me. I couldn't have mustered up an expression if I tried. She didn't notice or care, just went right on smiling. I could see why Felipe had chosen her for this job.

"Mixture," Pam muttered. "What a tame word. It's a poison. A weapon."

"All of those things are true. Anyway, you guys might wanna go. It's time for his next dose," Charlotte said, uncapping the True Blood and adding in a few drops of the tincture. "When I give it to him, it gets messy."

Pam and I exchanged a glance. She left the room. You couldn't have forced me out of there with a 2 by 4. It's not that I was anxious to see Eric in this condition but I did feel like I should know the full extent of what he was going through if I had to deal with the king. And I really wanted to see him move. Even if it was a bad movement. I wanted to see that there was still someone familiar home inside that rigid body.

Charlotte moved towards the coffin, her preparations complete. "Can you hold up his head for me?" she asked me. "It'll be easier if you do. I could use more help in here but Victor says it's a good job for me since I don't know hardly anyone here and they're all busy with other things."

I couldn't believe she was seriously thinking I might help her torture Eric. I didn't want to see him move badly enough to do that. "I'm gonna go with Pam in a sec," I told her. I went back to Eric to tell him good-bye. He wouldn't hear me but that didn't matter much. Maybe he'd sense my presence somehow, without the bond, the same way I felt his. But I thought it pretty likely that he didn't sense anything other than the silver that was killing him.

Looking at his face was difficult. I covered his open eyes with one hand and placed the other on the center of his chest. He jolted in his coffin at my touch. I closed my eyes and sent my extra sense toward him, trying to feel anything I could. But there was nothing. "Eric, it's Sookie," I said, because I didn't know what else to do. "I'm gonna go back to the hotel with Pam now but I'll be back."

He didn't seem to hear me. I prayed for strength, a quick prayer that I was pretty sure would fall on deaf ears. There wasn't going to be any comforting him. He was beyond all that. The knot in my stomach turned into a knife. I touched Eric's hair as the tears came. "I'll be back, I promise," I told him. "Bye now."

And then I left the room as fast as I could go, past Charlotte with her poison bottle and ran smack into Pam. She caught me by both of my shoulders. "Sookie… "

I wiped my wet cheeks with the back of my hands and took a deep breath. "Take me to Victor."

****

We found Victor waiting for us in the car, his cell phone pressed against his ear. When he saw us coming across the parking lot, he shut the phone off in a hurry. For the first time ever, I wished I could read vampire minds. I would've given a lot to know what reaction Victor wanted out of me. Whatever it was, the look on my face seemed to satisfy him.

I walked right up to the driver's side door and motioned for him to roll down his window. He turned the key in the ignition and hit the down button. I didn't even wait until it was all the way down before I asked, "Are you in a position to make negotiations for the king?"

Victor raised one eyebrow. "What makes you think the king is willing to negotiate with you? Eric made his bed, Sookie."

"Yeah, well, tell me this. How badly does the king want his very own telepath?" The words only shook a little. I was proud of that. Anger was pushing me through what would otherwise have been one of the worst moments of my life. I had a feeling I knew what this was all about. Quinn was right; it was me they wanted. Eric had told me a while back that they couldn't get to me because of our "marriage". He'd told me that they'd wanted to use me not only for my telepathy but also as leverage to ensure Eric's obedience. He'd never considered that they'd use him to get mine.

Victor did not seem surprised. _Aha_, I thought. Suspicions confirmed. "Are you offering to trade yourself to us for Eric's life?"

"I'm offering to contract with the king for certain services. On my terms. Mr. Cataliades can help us get it all straight." _Damn you, Eric. _I could hardly believe it was me saying these words but what else could I do?

Victor chuckled. "Oh, Sookie, what an innocent you are. When Eric dies, you will have no master, no one to claim you but us. Do you really think we'd take no for an answer?"

"No, probably not. But I do think that a willing telepath is easier to… easier to manage… than an unwilling one. And also more trustworthy. If you kill Eric, don't you think I'd be looking to mess you guys up any way I can?" I actually took a step back when I said this, just a tiny one.

"Not if you want to save your own skin," Victor said but I could see him thinking.

Pam moved restlessly at my side. I could tell she wanted to say something but I didn't know what. Then, suddenly, I did. I lifted up my shirt to show Victor my stomach. "Do you see this, Victor? A few weeks ago, I was covered in bite marks inches deep, all over here. All over everywhere."

"Yes, we heard about what happened. I'm glad to see you have healed," Victor said. He sounded sincere.

_I'm sure you're glad._ I wanted to punch him right in his smug nose. "It gets worse than that. Much worse. I won't give you all the details but suffice it to say…" I just shuddered.

Pam put her hand on my shoulder. "Sookie will never be whole again, that is what she is trying to say. And once Eric is finally dead and the bond is severed, it is very unlikely that she will be reliable enough to use. The medication doesn't work forever. Only someone very strong can survive that sort of severing and Sookie is not strong. Not now."

While I wasn't too sure about the part where I'd never be whole again, Pam was trying hard to back me up so I did my best to look unstable. Given the circumstances, it wasn't too hard. "Send Eric home and then we can talk."

Victor sat and thought for a minute. Pam stalked off across the parking lot toward the restaurant, telling me that she was going to find herself an untainted bottle of True Blood in the restaurant kitchen. I think she was simply too worried to wait there while Victor made up his mind. Pam was not used to having that kind of nerves. I was nervous too but far more used to the feeling. I shifted from foot to foot.

Finally, Victor finished whatever internal argument he was holding and smiled at me. Yikes. His smile put Jack Nicholson to shame for its creepy factor. "Okay. Let us compromise for the time being. You may take Eric back to the hotel with you. Pam can help. I will give you the antidote to the silver poison." He shuddered a bit. "Foul, foul stuff. And you will do a small job for us tomorrow morning to show us the extent of your good will. Tomorrow night, you will keep your appointment with the king. Should he prove amenable to your idea, he will assign someone to begin the negotiation."

"What about Eric?" I asked, believing about every third word Victor told me and nothing more. "He needs to be back in his area."

"Eric will stay with us, indefinitely. After you prove to us your usefulness, a thing that will take some time, we can figure out something else for him." Victor nodded to Pam as she walked up behind me, a bottle in her hand. "You have to admit, Sookie, it's a better deal than the one you have right now. For both of you and Eric."

I was powerfully uncomfortable with the thought of making such a huge decision for Eric. He loved being in charge of his own little section of the globe. Eric without his cronies, without his power, was hard to imagine. But I was sure he'd want to be alive no matter what. He was the most alive man I'd ever known, person or vampire. That thought made me smile my crazy-nervous smile. "Okay then, that's fine for now. What is this job that you have for me?"

Victor just shrugged. "We'll give you the details when we come for you in the morning. Around ten."

Uh-oh. That did not sound good. "I won't do anything illegal or immoral."

"We'll talk tomorrow." Opening the car door, he stepped out and handed me the key. "Go ahead and use this car to get Eric back to the hotel. I'll get there another way."

There was something I was missing, I was sure. I just didn't know what. I stared at Victor but he gave away nothing. He cocked his head slightly as if waiting for me to back out of the deal. And I wanted to, in a big way. I thought about Sam and what he'd say when he learned I'd put myself into this position to save Eric's life. I thought about Bill, and Quinn. I even thought about my grandmother but none of the homey advice she'd offered me fit this situation. Finally, I just looked down at the toes of my sandals, my shoulders slumping. Victor clapped his hands together and strode off for the restaurant.

Pam pulled me by the arm. "Let's go, Sookie. It'll be dawn soon. We need to get Eric up and moving."

***

In the end, I couldn't do it. Seeing all those little kids playing their hearts out two stories above the room where Eric would've died made me ill. Their parents chowed down on burgers and fries, completely unaware. My gorge rose and my head began to feel fuzzy. Victor let us back through the locked doors towards the torture room and on the way down the steps, my knees buckled. Pam told me it was the medicine wearing off and she was right. I could feel just the very smallest part of Eric's pain but more was coming to me by the second. Part of me was relieved to be able to feel him again, something that would have shocked me just days ago. The other part just thought, _Ow._

Charlotte helped me to Victor's car. I got in the backseat again and waited, glad to have her hands off of me. I know it wasn't really, totally her fault that she'd been the one in charge of Eric's torture but that didn't make me like her any better. I felt miserable, both from the pain I felt through the bond and from the sense that I really should have been there to get Eric out of that awful coffin. This might make me a bad… whatever I was to Eric… but I was glad I didn't have to be there to see him at his weakest. I didn't know what this antidote Victor had mentioned would do to Eric. And I knew I did not want to see the state of his back when they lifted him out of there.

It was well over an hour before Pam and Victor emerged from the back door to the restaurant with Eric held up between them. Eric was more than a head taller than them both so it would have been a funny sight under any other circumstances but as it was, I cared only about Eric. He was walking, for the most part. He looked like he was dying. I'd seen healthier people in photographs of concentration camps. Someone had found him a pair of black sweatpants and a loose, black tee-shirt. His feet, long and pale, were bare. His eyes were hollow, circled and darker than any eyes should ever be.

He looked older, somehow. I scooted over to the far side of the seat to allow Eric more room. Pam opened the door and they helped Eric to sit inside. He leaned back when the door shut and closed his eyes, wincing as his back came into contact with the seat. His legs stretched out as far as he could get them in the small backseat, which wasn't far.

"Eric?" I wasn't sure he realized I was there with him. Pam and Victor were talking outside the car. I couldn't hear what they were saying and didn't much care right then. I touched Eric's arm, the smallest of touches. "If you lean over here a bit, you can stretch out more."

His eyes snapped open and he narrowed in on my face. "Sookie," he breathed, giving a sound to my name that was entirely new. I think he tried to say something else but it seemed like the words got stuck on the way out. He licked his lips to wet them and coughed. I'd never heard a vampire cough like that. I felt like I was melting a little as each second ticked by.

I reached out for him and tugged his head down to rest on my lap. He made small movements to adjust the rest of his body, and then we had a moment where we were both still. I moved first. I stroked the hair from his face, traced the lines of his cheekbones and jaw with a finger. He made a low moan and I saw a trace of red tear glisten at the edge of his closed eyelids. "You're safe now," I told him, though I wasn't sure that was really true. I felt like crying myself but I pushed it back. "I won't let them hurt you anymore. You hear?"

He turned his head just enough to press his face into my middle. Inhaling deeply, he shuddered all over as he whispered, in an ancient voice, "I know. I know you."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Eric was able to walk to our hotel room though he leaned heavily on Pam and me all the way through the lobby and down the hallway. People must've thought the worst, or at least what _they_ thought of as the worst. They didn't know what the worst was but they were right.

Vampires are pretty incredible, when you think about it. All Eric really needed, other than the antidote to counteract the poison, was blood. Lots and lots of blood, Pam told me, and she went off to find a few willing donors. The idea of Eric sucking blood from some fangbangers didn't bother me as much as it might have under other circumstances. I wanted him to be well that badly.

He knelt on the end of the bed as soon as we got him into the room and sort of shimmied down to lay on his belly. After carefully closing the light-tight window shades, I sat beside him, my feet twisted off to the side. Leaning on one elbow, my other hand hovered over him. He looked so defeated. I was worried that if I touched him it would hurt him but finally, I cupped the back of his head so lightly with my palm, I wasn't sure he could feel it. He was awake, I thought, but no one else would have known that but me.

The bond was alive and kicking but faded a bit. I could feel the pain Eric felt only it didn't hurt me, just yet anyway. It was like the way you feel when you see the car barreling towards you down the street and you know it's gonna hurt when it hits you. The impact was coming. I hoped it would wait long enough for us to settle things down for the night.

Eric opened his eyes and looked up at me. I winced at the redness; it must've hurt like hell every time he blinked. "Pam?" he asked, touching my hand with the tips of his fingers.

Going very slowly, I put my hand in his and wove our fingers together. "She went to find you some, uhm, food. How are you feeling?"

"I will heal." He closed his eyes and kept them closed. "You shouldn't have come, dear one. Glad as I am to see you, I would rather know you are safe."

"Even if I'd stayed in Bon Temps, I wouldn't have been safe, Eric, and you know it." Irritation colored my words. I tried to tone it down. "These guys would have come after me the minute you… well, the minute you weren't there to protect me."

"Sookie, I swear to you, I did what I could for you." He stretched his neck back against the pillows. I watched his throat move as he swallowed hard. "Now you must understand why I've done what I've done."

"I know." And I did know. As much as I hated every single thing about the last two days, the shit would've hit the fan months ago if Eric hadn't been keeping Felipe's crew away from me.

Pam came back into the room alone. She shook her head in disgust. "No one would come. Felipe keeps a number of willing donors around but they've all been instructed that Eric is off limits."

"Why would they do that? Victor said…" I realized I might be overestimating the Nevada vampires yet again. What had Victor said, exactly?

"Victor said only that Eric could return with us. Nothing was said about feeding him." Pam gave me a look. "You do know they expect us to do it. They figure if Eric takes the amount of blood from us that he needs to heal, you'll be too weak to resist anything they ask of you and I will be too weak to protect you."

Well, no, I didn't know that but now I did. "Pam, I can't. I can give him some, yeah, but I have to keep up my strength."

"Find Quinn," Eric muttered. "He'll know of places we can go to get blood, if not from the source."

My fingers tightened around Eric's. "I'd give you some, really I would, but I don't know what kind of curveballs they're throwing us tomorrow and I have to be ready, for both our sake's."

"Dear one, I know," Eric said. "You are exactly right. Pam, get Quinn _now_, please."

Pam left the room as quick as a blink. I barely saw the flash of her blond hair before the door closed behind her. It locked automatically but I got up and stuck a heavy chair under the doorknob anyway. It wouldn't keep anyone out but seeing it there made me feel better.

"Sookie… I know you cannot give me much but…" Eric looked at me, his whole body asking one solemn, tender question.

I hesitated. I can't say why, other than that he looked breakable. And breakable Eric was almost as much a stranger as the Eric I'd fallen for when he'd lost his memory.

He picked up on my uncertainty. "Please. It's not so much the nourishment I want. It's more about the… Sookie, I want the comfort of your body."

A word echoed through my mind: _Solace._ Eric had lost everything he valued and possibly would still lose his life. I wondered if Pam and Victor had told him about the deal I'd made. I remembered Eric dancing with me in Rhodes, twirling me around, faster and faster until I flew into the air. That's how I felt right then, standing between the bed and the door. Spun.

Words failed me. I climbed onto the bed beside him and curled my body around his. "Tell me if this hurts you," I said, laying my head on his shoulder. He smelled terrible, of stale blood and other things I didn't want to identify. I put my wrist to his mouth.

He kissed the soft skin and inhaled deeply. Dropping my wrist to his chest, he turned his head to nuzzle my hair. "Never mind," he whispered. "This is better."

*****

I knew sunrise had come by the way Eric's body felt around mine. One minute, he was alive and the next, he simply wasn't. The bond faded back to a hum, which was a good thing because I was starting to really hurt. Poor Eric. Pam never did return with any blood or news of Quinn. Worry for her kept me awake. I hoped she'd found a safe place to settle down, which shouldn't have been too hard in this vampire hotel but then, we weren't exactly in the company of friends.

Exhaustion finally took over. I'd been awake too many nights with far too much daytime activity and stress, not to mention the medication hangover and the prolonged recovery from fairy torture. Guilt suffused me before I drifted off- Pam had done a lot for me, surely I should be up making certain nothing had gone wrong- but sleep had the greater pull.

When I awoke, Eric was still dead to the world (literally). It was around noon. My stomach let me know it wasn't happy with me for ignoring it for so long. I found a candy bar in my purse and downed it quickly. I needed a shower. While sleeping beside Eric had been just what I needed, comfort-wise, I didn't want to go around smelling like he did in his present condition. There were enough towels hanging on the bar in the small bathroom that I wasn't worried about hogging up three for myself even knowing Eric would need to wash when he got up.

I was out the door in less than thirty minutes, a record considering I'd washed and dried my hair. Put into a ponytail, no one could tell it was still partly damp. Before I left, I pulled a blanket over Eric's long legs and placed a note on the bedside table so he'd know, if I couldn't get back before dark, I was out looking for Pam.

I didn't expect to find Pam herself but I did hope to find Quinn. Maybe Pam had found him before dawn. If not, maybe he'd know where a lone vampire might hole up. And there was Eric to think of. He still needed blood.

It surprised me that no daytime henchmen had shown up to take me to the job Victor had mentioned I was to perform this morning. The silence from the strange vampires made me more uneasy than ever but hey, this was their hotel. They could just come to find me if they wanted me so badly. I didn't like leaving Eric alone but I knew that the first thing he'd ask me when he woke up was where Pam had gone. I really wanted to be able to give him a happy answer.

I stopped at the front desk. The schoolmarmish woman working there told me that John Quinn stayed in room 214. The elevator was quiet as a tomb. Its mirrors reflected my own pale face back at me in a way that made me look at my feet. Though I had no scars, I could still see the bruises and swollen places that had existed not too long ago.

Quinn's door was locked. I knocked hard and it opened before my fist left the wood. Quinn stood in front of me, blinking in the light of the hallway. His feet wore only socks; he held his shoes in his hands. The room behind him was black. "Sookie, I was just getting ready to come and find you."

"I'm looking for Pam," I told him. "She went looking for you last night."

"She's here. By the time she found me, there was no place else for her to go." Quinn stepped out of the room and shut the door behind him.

Whew. I guessed that was good. If we had a friend here, it was Quinn. However, considering that everyone else was an enemy, that didn't mean much at all. "Did you give her the blood for Eric?"

"Yeah, it's in the mini-fridge. She'll take it to him when she wakes up." He knelt down to tie his sneaker. "I need you to come with me. Victor has a job you need to do."

I didn't like the way he put that but he wasn't wrong. I needed to do whatever Victor told me, at this point. Something felt off though. Quinn was keeping something from me. I couldn't read his mind but I got the sense of anxiety he was trying to hide. "Do you know what it is they want me to do?"

He rose and took my elbow gently. "Oh yes."

That didn't sound good. Against my better judgement, I let him lead me to the elevator. To my surprise he took us down rather than up to Felipe's throne room. I don't know why I'd thought we'd go up there considering all the vamps were asleep.

The elevator opened to a cellar. Yeesh. The last place I wanted to be was another of Felipe's cellars. This one looked like a functioning cellar in that boxes were stacked floor to ceiling with labels on the sides reading things like Light Bulbs and Soap Bars. Typical hotel supplies. We walked past the boxes to the far end where a corner had been walled off. Quinn held open the door for me to enter first. Somewhat annoyed at that- he can take a lot more damage than I can-, I did.

The room held only one large, wooded table with two chairs on either side. Frannie occupied one of the chairs and she was in handcuffs, something I found completely astonishing as Quinn was keeping his temper under control. That hadn't been my experience with his reaction to threats against Frannie in the past.

In the second chair, wearing a new suit and expensive Italian shoes, sat Bobby Burnham. He held a gun. And he was smiling at me.

"Eric is going to kill you," I told him. The sight of him there burned me down to the core.

Bobby looked downright gleeful. The little worm. "Eric won't be in any position to do me any harm. I report to the king himself now."

Why did I get the feeling that Bobby's promotion had something to do with Eric's downfall? "We'll see." I looked at Quinn. His eyes were on the gun. "What's going on and why am I invited?"

Frannie opened her mouth to answer but Quinn cut her off with a shake of his head. He walked around the table to stand behind her. "Victor's Renfield is missing. He thinks Frannie saw what happened to him. She didn't but they won't believe her. They want you to read her mind and tell them that she's telling the truth."

Frannie glared daggers at me. So did Quinn though his were a hair friendlier. It didn't take telepathy to know that Frannie was hiding something. I couldn't tell if Quinn was in on it or not. I knew what they wanted me to do but I didn't think I could do it. Eric's life was resting on this decision and possibly my own as well. Or my freedom at the very least.

"Frannie, I'm gonna hold your hand." I reached for her but she jerked away.

"I don't want that bitch touching me," she said to Quinn, not deigning to actually address me.

"Do you really think they're going to give you a choice? Sookie won't hurt you." Quinn kept his eyes on me the whole time he spoke. "Will you, Sookie?"

My heart hurt for him. Frannie could be hiding something out of sheer stubbornness or maybe she really did know something. Either way, I couldn't do the thing Quinn was asking of me. I hate it but it was true. Though, looking at Frannie's spiteful face and remembering Quinn's attack on Bill that ended with me unconscious, I hated it a little less.

Frannie's hands were freezing cold. She clenched them into fists and refused to open them but that was fine, I didn't need them open. The minute I touched her, I knew everything the vampires could want to know. Frannie was trying hard to think about anything else besides the Renfield but that was like telling someone not to think of a purple elephant: they couldn't help calling one to mind.

But the minute I knew what had happened, I had second thoughts about the wisdom of telling the vampires the truth. Quinn's eyes were a fire on me. I knew then that he _did _know. And I knew why the vampires wanted me to do this particular job. I bet they knew very well what happened to the Renfield. I bet, too, that they knew Quinn was my only friend in their camp. Cutting that tie would only empower them.

I thought of Frannie, for whom, despite her acidic personality, I felt pity. And of their mother who'd had such a hard row to hoe. But mostly I thought about Quinn. I'd made so many mistakes with him. I wondered if I'd ever really known him.

I saw Eric as he'd looked in the silver coffin.

Turning to Bobby, I sighed. "Their mother killed him. But it was self-defense. The Renfield tried to bring her to Felipe as a blood donor. She wasn't willing. Frannie helped her to clean up, afterwards."

Things happened very quickly then. I'm not sure who moved first, Quinn or Bobby, but I saw the gun raise and then Bobby's throat was spewing blood all over the three of us. Frannie shrieked and fell backwards, slamming her head against the floor. Quinn's hands, fur covered and bloody-clawed, reverted back into their human state. He scooped up Frannie and brushed past me, carrying her out of that room as quickly as he could.

I ran behind him. "Quinn!"

He turned long enough to growl at me. Then he took off across the cellar, Frannie's hair a bright tail behind them.

_Bridge broken_. The vampires had succeeded. Quinn would never forgive me. On the plus side, the vampires now knew they could trust me and Bobby had gone to his well-deserved demise. It was then that I realized how bad this could be. Bobby was dead and Quinn and Frannie were gone. I was the only one who could tell the vampires what had happened. What if they didn't believe my version of events? What if they thought that I'd stood by while Quinn overpowered Bobby and then helped him and Frannie escape?

Fear pulsed through me. It was only one o'clock. I had maybe four hours before the oldest of the vampires awoke, Eric included. I missed Claudine badly in that moment. I could've used a fairy godmother. But there was no one I could ask for help. I didn't know a single human in Las Vegas.

My legs began to itch. Bobby's drying blood stuck my pants to my skin. There was nothing else to do but take the elevator back upstairs. When it opened, I found the lobby empty, thankfully. The clerk behind the front desk didn't bat an eyelash in my direction. God alone knows what kind of things she'd seen in the course of working here.

A pang of homesickness came so strongly, I leaned against the wall as I keyed open the door to my room. Eric hadn't moved, of course. I double-checked the window coverings and put the chair back under the door knob. I hated the way my clothes glued to me, making disgusting shloppy sounds as I lugged them off.

Angry tears welled up and fell; I ignored them as I flipped on the shower and jumped in before the water had even heated up. I was suddenly furious. Damn Felipe and Victor and yeah, Quinn and Frannie too! And damn Bobby Burnham because he'd been a jerk and a turncoat and vicious enough to shoot a teenage girl in the head but I still didn't like seeing him die. And damn Eric, for making me care so much for him that I'd gotten into this position in the first place.

I could just go home, I realized. Just take off out of here and get a taxi cab to the airport. I'd be home by bedtime. Home in my own bed with all of my comfortable things around me, with my job waiting for me, with my good-for-nothing brother backing me up when it suited his needs. I'd probably get to stay there for a night or two. They'd come for me after they executed Eric. Who I would have to leave behind.

I hated that I couldn't do it but I just couldn't.

The shower went cold on me as I stood under the spray, thinking as hard as I could. I toweled off and got dressed. I wasn't going anywhere. There was nowhere to go. No one outranked Felipe except maybe another king. I wondered if I could ask one of them for help. Stan was still healing from the injuries he'd taken during the Rhodes bombing but maybe Russell Edgington would be an ally. He liked me well enough. But he wouldn't do it if there weren't something in it for his own benefit and I couldn't think of anything I had to offer him that would be worth going to war with the king of two powerful states.

I had to wait. There was nothing else for it. Curling up next to Eric, I closed my eyes. Felipe would do whatever he would do. Either they'd believe me about Bobby Burham or they wouldn't. I guessed it was more about whether or not they wanted to believe me; as it was, they could pretty much claim any scenario was the truth. The ball was in their court and I, and Eric, at their mercy.

More chilling words, I could not think up.

*****

When I woke again, it was dark and there were people moving about my room. I was alone in the bed. Pam saw me sit up and came over. "Eric's in the shower. He's eaten. Quinn showed me where they keep the bagged blood."

Bagged blood like they have at hospitals, I thought, rubbing my eyes. The sound of Eric's shower was reassuring. I saw Bill sitting in the chair I'd pushed under the door knob. Somehow, seeing him there felt right. I hadn't realized I'd been expecting him until I saw him. He didn't move toward me but just looked at me in his serious way. I gathered that I looked like hell. I definitely felt like hell. That car I'd seen coming down the road toward me had hit me, all right. My pain wasn't specific to the places on Eric's body that were injured. It was a whole-self kind of deal.

Pam handed me a cup of water. I gulped it down. "I have to tell you guys something," I said, wiping water from my lips.

"We know about Quinn and Frannie," Bill said. "Quinn came to me on his way out of town."

"How'd he know where you were?" I asked. It's not like they'd been on good terms.

"I called him, looking for you. He told me what transpired between you and his sister, between himself and Bobby Burnham. Bobby had been reporting Eric's activities to Felipe even before the take-over. It was he who told Felipe of Eric's connection to you."

Pam showed a hint of fang with one snarled corner of her mouth. "Burnham is fortunate the tiger ended his life quickly. We would not have shown such mercy."

"It was more necessity than mercy. Bobby was about a half-second away from shooting Frannie in the head." Poor, stupid Frannie. I wondered where Quinn was taking her. I wondered how, exactly, he planned to keep the both of them safe.

"Eric was extremely displeased." Pam cocked her head as the sound of the shower stopped. "He needs help in there. He's still very weak."

Bill vanished out the door. That was probably for the best. Pam offered her hand to me and helped me up from the bed. She held my hand for just a moment. "Sookie, you won't have long before Victor calls us upstairs. I'll be in the hallway. Come out when you- when both of you- are ready. You will have much to discuss between you. Take what time you can."

That was downright touchy-feely for Pam. I must've passed some sort of test with her. She nodded to me as if she knew what I was thinking. "Vampires first, still, but you are Eric's wife. You've proven yourself."

I was speechless. And relieved. If Pam thought I'd made the right choice in saving Eric's life though he'd lost everything else, maybe Eric would think so too.

I was too emotional to figure out the proper response. All I could do was fall back on making light of it all. "Aww Pam, you're getting me all choked up."

"Just so you know," she said with a cool smile.

When Pam had left, I went to the bathroom door and knocked. "Eric?

He didn't answer. I knocked again. Nothing. The bond was suffused with physical pain, over which I could feel nothing else. Cracking open the door, I said, "Eric? I'm coming in."

He sat in the bathtub, his head bowed forward. His hair was a golden curtain shielding his face. The water covered his lower body but I could see that the whip marks had healed completely on his torso. The bathtub was too short for his long body. His white knees poked up, giving the impression of vulnerability. I reminded myself that despite everything, this was Eric, Viking warrior, ruthless leader. There was nothing vulnerable about him.

And then he looked up and I knew I was dead wrong.

"You need to tell me what you've done." His jaw was set in one, grim line. "Whatever it is, I need to know now."

So I told the vampire that I was made him a deal that stripped him of everything he cared about and had built up over a thousand years. I told him the Nevada vampires had taken everything away from him but his life… that I'd been able to save that much. He listened to me spill my guts with impassive calm. As I told him about Bobby Burnham and Quinn and Frannies, I sank onto the toilet. My knees shook. "Quinn had to do it. Bobby would've shot Frannie."

"Burnham deserved his death," Eric said and then fell silent.

We sat like that for a few minutes. I could hear the sound of my own, rapid breathing, slowly calming. Eric tipped his head back against the wall of the tub. "Sookie. Dear one. I don't know what to say to you."

"Can you tell me that you don't hate me?" Tears came then. "I wouldn't have done it if I thought there was another way. There was no one to ask for help. I just wanted…" I swiped at my face with the backs of my hands. "I just wanted them to let you go."

"And now they'll never let go of you. And I have nothing and no way to protect you. But I am not dead and I have you to thank for that. You've paid a great price for my life."

"It's all you have now," I said. I dropped to my knees beside the tub, grasping the side. "I'm sorry. I know how much it meant to you, having your area and all your people."

"It meant safety. It meant never again being used or having to do things against my will."

I thought of Appius whatsisname, Eric's sire, and of the ways he'd used Eric so many centuries before. "I'm sorry," I said again. I felt like I was about an inch tall. "I thought it was the only answer. You never seemed like anything could make you want to meet the sun."

"Where there is life, there is hope. I've used those words to get by long before they were coined as an adage." His hand, warm from the bath, covered mine. "You did right, Sookie. I thank you. But now I have no means with which to defend you."

"I know." Boy, did I ever.

He touched my hair, his fingers etching a path along the side of my face and down my neck. He grasped me by the shoulder and gave me a gentle shake. "This changes nothing between us. You are still mine. We will have to do what we can, whatever we have to do. I have survived for a long time by taking things a minute at a time."

For the first time, hearing him call me _his _did not rub me the wrong way. This one time, it didn't scare me. It didn't make me feel owned. After everything that had happened, from the fairy war right up to standing in the cellar covered in Bobby Burnham's blood, I wanted someone to belong to. And if anyone could be said to have a claim on Eric himself, it was me.

"You are mine too," I said, even though the words felt clumsy on my tongue.

Eric nodded and kissed my palm. "At least we still have this."


	5. Chapter 5

**My apologies for the delay in posting this chapter. My oldest turned 8 and I have been busy with extended birthday festivities. Thank you very much for the reviews. I'm glad to know so many people are enjoying the story. **

**Chapter Five**

I'm not a weak woman but helping a man as tall and broad as Eric out of the tub and into bed fell someplace between a challenge and a comedy routine. To Eric's credit, he didn't pull the macho man crap. I guess he was secure enough about the size and skill of his balls and bat that he didn't need to. I knew it hurt him to move but between my help (thankfully still reaping the benefits of Eric's blood) and grabbing onto the wall, he was able to maneuver himself into the chair.

"Do you need some more blood?" I asked him as I searched for my shoes. I thought I'd kicked them off in the bathroom but nope, they'd made their way under the bed somehow. "Victor should be here soon but there's time if you need to eat."

Eric nodded and I got him a blood packet Pam had left on top the mini-fridge. He drank it in a few quick gulps while I searched the room for wherever his borrowed clothing had been stuck (in the closet, folded neatly, by Pam).

If you'd told me way back when I first met Eric, that day with Bill at Fangtasia, that I'd one day be helping him get dressed at a vampire hotel in Las Vegas while he chugged a bag of blood, I would have thought… I don't know what I would have thought. I'd probably have jumped on the first plane to Oklahoma (still the lowest vampire population though it's risen to four). But that was the way my life played out. And I don't think I would have done anything much differently, even if people could go back and say "do over!"

Eric didn't meet my eyes while I helped him. I thought that the last time someone had dressed him, it'd probably been his mother, a thousand years before. I wondered about her and if she'd ever had any mother's intuition about the strange path her son's life would take. Probably not.

The phone rang, interrupting my thoughts. Eric quirked an eyebrow towards it, so I went over and picked it up from beside the bed.

"Yes," he said, his voice giving the illusion of health he did not have.

He hung up without another word. "Victor. Felipe wants us upstairs." I knew he was angry enough to spit nails. He really wore that on his sleeve when he didn't feel the need to put on the poker face.

I called to Pam, knowing she'd hear me through the door. She came inside and helped me lift Eric from the chair. The strength I'd gotten from having so much of Eric's blood over the last few months was nothing compared to the strength Pam had all on her own. But I wouldn't trade being alive for the ability to lift small cars, that was for sure.

The elevator rattled on its way up. There was no sign of Bill but I didn't ask Pam where he'd gotten to. I wasn't sure if Eric even knew Bill was around or if he'd want him here. Guys don't like other guys to see them at their low moments, particularly when that other guy has a history with their girl. Eric was dealing pretty well, so far, all things considered. Why borrow trouble when we had so much of our own?

The elevator opened in the throne room and there in front of us sat Felipe, just as before, on his throne. His handsome face was etched into stern lines. I noted that he'd shaved off his mustache. Maybe he'd seen the pictures of Brad Pitt with his "pornstache" (or so Amelia had named it). He had the same black cape hanging over the arm rest. I wondered if he had a bunch of identical capes or if he just wore that same one over and over.

The roof was crowded with about a dozen vampires but the minute we walked in, they filed out the side door. I guess they'd been given their orders. Victor stood beside and slightly behind the throne. Charlotte sat at his feet, like a dog. I smiled my nervous smile at him, gripping Eric's arm for all I was worth. I had no idea what to expect from either Felipe or Eric.

"Excuse me for not bowing," Eric said steadily. "I'm not yet fully healed." He did not look at Charlotte, a little too obviously avoiding giving her any of his attention.

"Of course," said the king, waving his arm to motion us forward.

We moved ahead as a unit, Pam taking almost all of Eric's weight. I kept his arm more for my own comfort than out of any pretense of helping support him. Though I guess I at least kept him balanced for Pam. I wanted the feel of him under my hand and I wanted the illusion that I could hold him back if he decided to do something crazy like go for Felipe's throat. Not that Felipe didn't deserve it but I'd given up a lot to save Eric's life and I wasn't gonna stand there and let him throw it away.

Eric stood as straight as he could. We waited for the king to speak. He seemed to be considering us all at length. My smile grew. He ignored it. I guessed he knew I was just human enough to smile at inappropriate moments. Charlotte picked at her fingernails.

It was Victor who broke the stalemate. "Eric, why don't you sit," he said, sounding for all the world as if he and Eric were old buddies. He pointed to the chaise that was positioned against the wall next to the elevator doors.

From the way Eric's arm stiffened at that suggestion, I knew he was going to say no when he opened his mouth but Pam beat him to it. "That is a good idea," she said and tugged us in that direction. Eric scowled at her but she just kept tugging and when he leaned back on the chaise, I was pretty sure he was glad she'd spoken up. Though I'm also sure I wasn't alone in wondering what she was up to. Maybe she just wanted more space between Eric and Felipe. Or maybe she wanted to reinforce his weakness in their minds.

Felipe cleared his throat. "So, Eric, now you have nothing and I must decide what to do with you.

"So it seems," Eric replied, clenching his jaw in a way that made the tiny muscles dance. I perched beside him, leaning just a little bit into his leg. I wanted to remind him that I was here but I wasn't sure how helpful that reminder might be at the moment.

"In honor of our past relationship, I have decided to allow you a choice." Felipe paused, seemingly for dramatic emphasis. I rolled my eyes and, oddly, so did Victor. Felipe didn't notice. "You may return to where you were before Miss Stackhouse arrived. We will continue as previously planned. Or you may serve my court at a status level with Charlotte, who you have observed to be a useful and obedient minion."

Eric's whole body jerked. "I will need some time to consider these options."

I spun around to face him. "Are you nuts?"

He glowered at me. "I need time," he repeated and gestured slightly toward Felipe with his chin.

Incredulous, I turned back around. "Please excuse my interruption, uhm, your Highness."

Felipe nodded regally in a way that made me certain he'd once been teacher's pet. "While Eric considers his options, it is you I would like to address."

Uh-oh. "I told Victor I'd work for y'all as long as Eric is kept safe. That doesn't include giving him the choice to get executed."

"I'm confident that Eric will not choose that option." He waved his hand. "No matter. You will work as needed. You may stay here in the hotel. Your room and board will be covered as a part of your fee. Charlotte will make herself available to you, for your protection."

_To inform you of my every move,_ I translated. "I'm not doing a thing for you if Eric isn't returned to his area," I said, then thought twice when Pam clucked her tongue." Uhm, your Highness." I bowed just a little.

Felipe hissed at me. Like a snake, not like a cat. His fangs were a little more curved than those I'd seen before. Eric's, Bill's, Pam's… yeesh, how many sets of fangs have I seen now? Maybe a dozen? They'd all been pretty uniform in length and shape but Felipe's curled in. Exactly like a snake's fangs do, now that I thought about it. I wondered if it was something he'd had done, like some people file their teeth to points.

"Miss Stackhouse, you are hardly in a position to be making demands. After your service in saving my life that night in your little village, I made you our friend. Your safety is secure. However, Eric has lived long under the rules we vampires all must follow." He looked at Eric in a way that chilled me to my bones. "Usted debe encontrar el sol. Su mujer es mía."

I don't speak Spanish beyond the basic "hola" so I just sat there. Pam shrugged at me. Eric managed just fine. He rattled off words in Spanish without missing a beat. "Yo no abandonaré. Puedo esperar."

Felipe stood. As he did, Victor stepped forward and placed the black cape around Felipe's shoulders. A good little handmaiden, he kept his eyes lowered. Felipe patted Victor's arm. "Gracias. Bueno. Eric, you shall remain in the hotel with Miss Stackhouse. I do not mind if you stay together as long as you remember to whom your loyalty is given. You should both keep yourselves available. Victor will contact you when you are needed. If there are any problems, contact him and he will inform me if my attention is required."

He swept out of the room, his cape swirling behind him. I thought of Zorro and wondered if Felipe kept a sword like that around someplace. Or a whip. _Oh no, I really don't want to know anything about any whips ._But I bet he had some stashed away. He was that kind of guy.

Charlotte stood up and walked over to us. I would've thought more highly of her had she been nervous. Eric continued to pretend she was invisible. She smiled at me. "I'm supposed to go hang out with you guys. Is your room a double?"

"No," Pam said in her coldest tone. Her eyes went cold too, like a lion's, reminding me that I was dealing with creatures who'd left humanity behind.

Charlotte hadn't left it behind all that long ago and that fact was obvious. "Okay then," she said. "I guess I'll get a room next door."

Victor pointed to the elevator. "Charlotte, you go talk to the front desk about that room."

She sighed. That gave me another hint at how young she must be. "I'm hungry, Victor."

He didn't even look at her, just snapped his fingers. And she jumped. _Woof_, I thought, wondering at what their relationship might be.

When she'd gone, Victor went across the room to a table against the far wall, behind the throne. He picked up two chairs and set them down in front of Eric's chaise. Motioning for Pam to be seated in one, he sat in the other. Pam sat so slowly, it was almost funny. Suspicion laid so heavily between us and Victor, I could've gone tap dancing on the air. Eric lounged back as if he were king and Victor a supplicant. I stayed put but it was not comfortable being so close to Victor.

"Tomorrow night, Felipe is holding a party. All of the royals from other states have been invited. The RSVP list is extensive. You will be asked to serve Felipe at the party, Sookie."

"Serve him how?" As if I didn't know.

"Just stay close. Pay attention." He shrugged. "Do your thing."

"And then what? What about the night after, and the night after that one?" I asked, only to receive disapproving looks from all three vampires. "What?"

Pam said, "Sometimes things are better left a night at a time, my friend. Bide your time."

Oo-kay. "So, I'll hang out with Felipe, tell him anything I hear that he should know."

"No," said Victor, "You will tell me and I will decide what Felipe needs to know."

"He sure puts a lot of faith in you. Are you his child?" I knew it was the rudest thing, asking him straight-out like that but I didn't much care about being polite at this point and I was pretty sure Victor wanted to keep me at least a little happy.

I was right. He smiled tightly. "No. He was my nest brother for centuries. We share a maker. Or, shared, actually. Our maker went to his final death many years ago."

How special. Brothers. "So, how did Felipe become king, anyway?"

"The usual way. He killed all the competition." Victor leaned back in his seat. "Except for me, of course. But then, he trusts me."

Something about the way he said that didn't sound quite right. Like there were layers beneath the words that I couldn't hear. Victor stared at me in a way that made me squirm. "What?" I asked him finally.

He raised an eyebrow. "Don't you know?"

"Um, no. What am I supposed to know?" He kept staring at me. I scooted closer to Eric. Pam moved to the edge of her seat.

Victor frowned. "You can't hear me?"

Is _that_ what he was doing? Projecting at me? "I can't hear vampires. I thought you knew that. Only humans. And I can get a feel off of shifters but no clear thoughts."

"That's not what Barry tells me."

"Barry _Bellhop_ told you I can read vamps? Well, he's a big, stinking liar." How dare Barry say something like that, and to Felipe's gang, of all people! Was he trying to get me killed?

"Barry and you share a talent. Barry reads vampire minds for Stan. Therefore, I assumed that you can do the same."

"Well, I can't." And wow, glad I'd gotten that out of the way. If Victor thought I could read his mind, I was surprised he hadn't had me taken out immediately. "Why do you ask?"

Victor leaned forward and took my hands in his, to my surprise. I let him because, well, why not. Though Eric bared a little fang Victor's direction, he didn't say anything. I guessed it was warning fang.

"Sookie, you've learned a bit about vampire politics over the last months since we came to Louisiana. And you are a very, very special woman." He smiled, showing a little fang himself. I tried not to shudder. "Your talents are valuable. And you aren't stupid, which holds nearly an equal value. I'm sure you can read vampire minds, as Barry does. It's clever of you to hide that fact."

"Gee, thanks?" I said, tugging a little to free my hands. Eric's knee against the small of my back was a solid comfort, weak as he was.

Victor did not let go. "It's come to my attention that there may be certain ways in which you and I might help each other. You are, obviously, in need of help. I know you don't want to be here. And your husband is pitifully reduced."

I was listening with all I had. "And what can you do about that?"

"I can send you home. I can re-instate Eric in Area 5 and even increase his power, should he wish that." Victor smiled. "I can do all of these things… if you help me."

Warning alarms blared in my mind. I felt Eric go still as a statue. "What do you want me to do?"

"Something only you can." Folding his arms across his chest, Victor said, "Find the king's daytime resting place and while he's sleeping, kill him."

*****

_Dum, dum, duhhhhh,_ I thought, happy to be safely back in the comfort of my hotel room bed. Sunrise wasn't for about another two hours, which was all the time we would have to figure out what to do. Victor sent us back to our room without saying much more, to think about what he'd proposed. He seriously believed I could read the king's mind. He wanted me to pull Felipe's resting place straight out of his thoughts and go there to do the deed myself.

And go alone, I realized, as the only people I knew here were vampires. Quinn wouldn't be a possibility. Even if he'd been around and willing to come to help, he'd never kill Felipe. Why bite the hand that feeds? Felipe wasn't great but I bet Quinn would choose the devil he knew over the devil he didn't. Victor.

Who would, of course, replace his brother as king. Which was the whole point of this insanity. And the more I thought about Quinn and Victor and the missing Renfield, the more I was certain that Victor had engineered that situation to strip me of my only daytime-capable companion. Whatever he had gained from Bobby Burnham's death was a mystery to me but I was guessing it had to do with Bobby's loyalty to Felipe as well as his ability to operate during the day. And guard Felipe's casket from enterprising telepaths.

Eric, beside me, was in downtime. I was sure that wherever his thoughts were, he was considering the same issues as I. The biggest one being that I couldn't actually read Felipe's mind. The only time I'd read a vamp, it'd been by accident. What were the odds of having a convenient accident right now? Slim to none.

But what if I could discover this information in another way? Then I could kill the king and Eric and I could go home. The thought sent a surge of yearning through me. _Home. _I wondered if Sam was completely freaking out by now, and Jason too. I made a mental note to call them later.

I could kill the king, I thought. Thinking about what he'd done to Eric and to me, I could do it without blinking. And I wasn't even going to consider whether or not it made me a bad person, not this time. Been there, done that. Bad or not, I was playing the hand I'd been dealt.

But even if I could find his resting place and kill him, what then? We'd go home… and I'd find myself with a passel of new enemies pissed off because I'd killed their liege lord? I thought of Siegebert's anger after Sophie-Anne's death. While I hadn't seen any loyal vampires around Felipe other than Victor (and Charlotte, who hardly counted), I thought that was because Felipe wanted to keep us sequestered for whatever reason, not because they didn't exist. The last thing I needed was to create more enemies.

Eric shifted to life beside me. Or something like it, I thought, giving myself an internal, sarcastic "ha-ha". He looked me over like he was checking to make sure nothing had changed since he went into his funky trance. "All my fingers and toes," I told him, reaching over to brush a bit of his hair behind his ear.

"I have a plan." He rolled toward me, propping himself up on one elbow, fist under his chin. "Sookie… I think it will work. But it involves putting you at risk, something I don't do lightly."

"You mean, like the risk I'm in right now? And have been every day since you were brought to Nevada? And the risk I was in even before I was brought here, though you didn't tell me about that and left me to find out from Quinn? That risk?" Until the words poured out, I hadn't realized how mad at Eric I'd been. For not telling me what was going on, yet again. And for getting himself into this situation by protecting me from the king way back in Shreveport, with the marriage knife and all.

"You are not stupid, Sookie, and I won't treat you as if you are," he said, every word gritted between his teeth in an effort to hold his temper. "Had I not protected you, I would be having a drink at Fangtasia right this moment and you, my dear, would be upstairs, one of Felipe's donor whores." He put his hand to my mouth gently to stop my protest. "You wouldn't have been given a choice. That is how Felipe operates. Instead, my circumstances are not good and yours are not as bad as they could be. I could have told you before they brought me here, true, but you could have done nothing to stop it, in your condition. All you could have done was lie in bed, heal, and fret."

"Okay, good point," I conceded. "But in principle, I'm mad at you."

"That's fine." He moved the edge of my shirt slightly and drew out the white gold chain that hung around my neck. Pulling it out from my collar, he presented the tiny marriage knife to me on one fingertip. "I did leave you a message."

"You did. Though the letters I got from Pam and Bill were confusing." Speaking of Bill, I wondered where he'd gone. Pam was occupying Charlotte in her room down the hall. I didn't want to know how.

Eric tucked the necklace back inside my shirt, giving my chest a stroke for good measure. "As I was saying, I do have a plan."

I arched against his hand. "If you stop that, I'll be all ears," I said, half-wishing he wouldn't though he was in no condition to go any farther.

Eric smiled at me, a beautiful smile. Then he asked something that gave me chills. "Do you think we could get access to any more of that silver tincture?"

*****

Bill hated Las Vegas. He hated Felipe, he hated Eric and he hated everything about being in this hotel, trapped, he thought, by his love for Sookie.

And it was love, now. Had been for a long time. He'd do what he could for her, even if it meant helping her to help Eric. Eric, who he hated and envied in equal measure. In all the years in which he'd known the Northman, he'd never coveted the power and panache that came so easily to the older man. But the invisible, intangible qualities that had attracted Sookie to him, yes, those he envied with all that was left of his heart.

And so, when Pam had tracked him down just before sunrise and begged him to do this task, he'd done it without questioning her and without seeking out Sookie to ask if this was her true wish. He knocked on the door to the hotel room and when he saw Charlotte open the door, he put a smile on his face.

This was not the first time he had been sent with a mission to seduce a woman for information. As he stepped into the room and saw the light fill Charlotte's eyes, he hoped down to his marrow that it would be the last. It made him feel like a whore. It made him a whore.

"I was hoping I could find a warm bed for the daytime here," Bill said, giving Charlotte the thrill of his full attention.

Charlotte beamed. "I've got lots of room. Aren't you with Sookie and them?"

Treading carefully, Bill said, "We're acquainted."

"They don't like me, you know." Charlotte pressed close to Bill, wrapping both of her hands around his forearm. "I guess that makes sense."

"I like you fine," Bill said, lowering his face to the curve of her neck. Nipping lightly with his teeth, he waited for her to react. She moaned. It was so easy. Above her shoulder, he scrutinized the room behind her. A purse, large and human, rested on the nightstand. "Why don't you go ahead and wash up for the night?"

She took a step back. "Do I smell funny?"

"You smell like Victor," Bill said, running his forefinger down her cheek. "Such a lovely woman should smell only of herself."

A small sigh escaped her open lips. "I'll be just a minute, then," she breathed. She walked backwards to the bathroom, holding Bill's gaze all the way there until she closed the door between them.

Bill's lusty look fell away instantaneously. He moved to the purse and opened it. Finding what he needed, he tucked the small bottles into his pocket and sat on the bed.

Charlotte opened the bathroom door. Her heavy jaw was slack with anticipation. "Why are your clothes still on?" she purred.

"Sorry, sweetie," Bill said. He pointed to the window, closing his eyes. "Sunrise is here."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Looking at the small vials in my hand, I wished Niall was still around. He could've told me what was in this stuff. For that matter, he could've poofed me out of here into fairy land, problem solved. Or had his people come wipe out Felipe's people in one big bang.

Okay, probably not as easy as that but a girl about to face down the king could dream. Couldn't she?

"Drink up," Pam said. Her eyes met mine in the bathroom mirror. They were unrelenting.

Apparently not.

So, I drank. The stuff had the same metallic taste as blood. I guessed that was on purpose, so it could be slipped into a vampire's drink. Clever fairies.

Pam took the empty bottles from me, holding them away from her as if they might contaminate her through their glass. She started to toss them into the garbage.

"Bad idea," said Eric from the bed. He could see in through the open door. "Felipe will find out from the cleaning staff."

"Right." Pam took them to Eric. He pocketed them.

Bill had gotten three vials from Charlotte. I didn't ask him how. He came into the room just after nightfall with the air of someone who'd been through battle and won. I guessed that he felt like he was giving me a tribute and I tried to thank him but he just smiled at me and left. I wondered where Charlotte was and what had gone on between the two of them. Not that it was my business. At all.

The two vials I drank had been glass. The third was in a metal flask. We had smelled it and I'd taken the smallest of tastes. It seemed the same as the stuff in the glass but if so, why the special container? Eric made the decision that I would drink the glass bottles and leave the metal for "just in case". I wondered what could befall us that would prod me into swallowing an unknowable vampire poison intended for use in Eric's torture and decided not to go there.

My stomach felt warm but otherwise, I was just great. Eric and Pam watched me as I pulled my hairbrush from its drawer beside the sink and prepared myself to attend Felipe's party. They watched me like a firefighter watches a truck on fire. Waiting for the boom.

"Boo!" I joked and Pam actually jumped.

"Ha, ha, ha," she said. Her lovely face was one big mask of worry.

"Well, quit staring. I'm not gonna implode or grow another head or anything." I pulled my hair up into a ponytail and reached for my powder. I didn't need a lot but it made me feel better. "That goes for you, too, Eric. Knock it off!"

"Excuse us, Pam," Eric said. He was sucking blood out of a bag and yet, even while doing so, managed to look commanding. Pam disappeared out the door.

"Sorry, I know I'm being a grouch," I told him, closing up my make-up bag. "My stomach's in knots. Not literally," I added hastily, seeing his gaze fall to my middle.

"I think you will be fine but I think you should take some more of my blood before you go. Felipe will be…" Eric made a face as if his throat had constricted. "He is much stronger than you."

"But if I follow the plan, I'll be just fine. I'll offer myself to Felipe, for his bedtime snack, after the party guests clear out. He'll take me to his bed and he'll drink up and…," I made a cutting motion with my finger across my throat. "I'm a poisoned apple."

"Tart, anyway," Eric said, smiling just a little. "I can't help being concerned, dear one."

"Yeah, but you are the master planner guy." I crawled across the mattress toward him. "We've got it down," I said, cuddling against him. "It'll be fine. Tomorrow, you'll be back inspiring the lust of fangbangers across Shreveport and I'll be serving drinks to my neighbors and trying to ignore their kinky thoughts and everything will be good again."

Eric said nothing. He stroked my hair. Across the bond, I felt something other than pain for the first time since I arrived in Nevada. It was a warmth, like love. I closed my eyes and continued to fake a confidence I did not feel.

*****

The party was already in full swing by the time we arrived. Pam and I had argued for Eric staying in the hotel room by himself. I guess we were both worried about what kind of bruising his pride might take by being paraded around all the big wigs as an invalid. He refused and we all entered the hotel ball room together. I guess he wanted to keep an eye on things though it seemed to me like a type of self-flagellation since he couldn't do anything to help.

After getting Eric situated in a set that kept him out of the limelight yet gave him a good view of everything going on, Pam and I went off to find Victor. We waded through the throng of people (my extra sense told me both human and vampire), finally locating Victor against the far wall, talking quietly with Charlotte. She looked pinched and frumpy. And when she saw me, she glared and stomped away. Victor chuckled.

"What's that all about?" I asked him, watching Charlotte go off into the crowd.

"I believe it has to do with female jealousies." Victor looked me up and down. "You look edible, Sookie."

I hoped he was just being cute. He couldn't know. Not that it mattered a lot but Eric was dead-set on keeping Victor in the dark when it came to our master plan. I don't think he thought much past his habit of keeping everyone on a need-to-know basis.

"Hear anything interesting?" Victor asked. He took my arm and led me across the room. Pam trailed along behind us.

"I've only been here two minutes." I didn't elaborate. Eric thought it would be better if I didn't try to convince Victor that I was deaf to vampire brains. He told me that Victor would only believe I was lying to him. I guess he was right but it felt strange to pretend to listen to things I had no hope in hell of hearing. Besides, I still felt that it was sort of a death sentence though I guess Victor didn't mind. Hmm. I wondered why he wasn't worried I'd read _his_ mind. Surely he had some secrets stored up over the centuries? But people do that all the time. They might believe I can read the minds of others while still thinking their own thoughts were safe.

Or maybe he just didn't care. Maybe it was like the antelope knowing the leopard was out looking for lunch. The end result is the same. _Crunch._

I tried not to look at Eric, sitting alone in his corner. It made me feel self-conscious, knowing he was watching me. Self-conscious and very aware that I had to play my part to perfection in order to save his life.

Victor took me to Felipe, who sat surrounded by surrounded by the other royals. Russell Edgington was there alone, which surprised me. I looked around but didn't see his husband anywhere. Another surprise was seeing Stan, in all his geeky splendor, sitting stiffly to Felipe's right. His second-in-command, Joseph, stood behind him. Last I'd heard from Eric, Stan was a long ways away from healed after the Rhodes bombing and Joseph had been in charge of Texas. I wasn't exactly fond of Stan but I didn't mind him as much as some others and I was glad to see him in apparent working order. I wondered how Joseph felt about being demoted back to second banana.

I felt a human brain in the crowd of vampires and turned to see Barry Bellhop walking toward me. Oh, goody, I thought, ready and willing to give him a piece of my mind. How dare he set me up as he did! But I remembered, just in time, where I was and who I was with. "Barry," I said. It was the least-friendly greeting I could manage.

"Hey Sookie," Barry said. He looked awful. Not that he'd ever been a hunk of burning love or anything but now he was gaunt and so pale, he fit right in with the living dead around us. His hair was lank and the circles under his eyes gave away that he'd been sleepless for far too long. He looked like… ah. He looked like a junkie. A poke through his brain gave me more information than I really wanted.

I had to do it. "Excuse us a second, Victor. I need to, ah, talk shop with Barry here for a second." I grabbed Barry by his arm and hauled him off toward Eric. He wasn't all that easy to haul, which just confirmed my opinion. Victor waved us on.

"Let me go," he said, trying to yank himself free but I held on until we got to Eric.

Eric was watching us approach. I think he was amused. I was not. "Eric, you remember Barry?" I figured it would take Eric all of thirty seconds to figure out what I'd learned. "Barry has a real fondness for vampires."

"Barry Bellhop," Eric said, sizing him up.

Barry looked down at his feet, shod in worn loafers. "I'm really sorry, Sookie. The vampires were all real interested in what you can do."

"And I'm real interested in what you can do," I said, poking him in the arm. We might have had our issues back in Rhodes but I still wanted to give him help if I could. After all, we were two of a kind in a way. "Since when can you read vampire minds?"

Barry cringed. "You know I can't. Not really."

"Uh-huh. I know. But I'm guessing _they_ don't," I said, nodding to Stan and Joseph. "They pay you?"

"Oh yeah." Barry's chagrin broke long enough for him to smirk. Then he glanced at Eric's glower and looked down again really fast. "They pay me more when I take the risk of reading a vamp."

"Which you can't really do," I said.

"But I can guess. Or, sometimes, make it up good enough for them to believe me. It doesn't have to happen all that often. Stan's area has been pretty calm and Joseph is a good guy for a vamp. But a few times…"

"And then you use the extra money to buy V."

"Shh!" Barry looked toward the doors longingly. "Aren't you hooked too? You're pretty strong for your size. Don't you use?"

Eric's hand shot out and grabbed Barry by the shirt. He pulled Barry down to his knees. Barry let him, apparently not realizing Eric was too weak to make him kneel. If I were Barry, I would've dropped down too. Eric's face looked _that _scary.

He growled at Barry, right in Barry's wan face. "Don't even suggest such a thing. You have already caused Sookie harm with your lies."

"I didn't mean to!" Barry swallowed so hard, his Adam's apple bobbed wildly. I saw Eric's eyes drop to Barry's throat and for a brief, satisfying second, imagined Eric biting sense back into Barry.

"Be that as it may," Eric said, releasing Barry. He sat back as if he wanted to lounge but I felt his fatigue through the bond. That much action had cost him. "You will answer Sookie's questions to her satisfaction and you will aid her if she requires it."

"I'm Stan's telepath," Barry said. It would have sounded braver had he kept the quaver out of his voice. "You can't touch me."

Eric laughed. His laugh chilled _me. _Barry actually shivered. "Stan and I have a long-standing agreement. We've worked together longer than you've been alive, boy."

"I'll help Sookie if I can." Barry gave me a shaky smile. "I'd be glad to. But I don't know what I can do."

"First of all, get off the V," I told him. "And second, don't pretend to read vamps anymore. Victor heard you could do that and now he's convinced I can too."

"I… I can try. With the V. I have been trying. See?" He held out one hand to show me how it trembled. "That's proof. When I'm on it, I look so good." He laughed a little. "Even you would want me."

I thought of all the men in Merlotte's who would sooner kiss a squid than date me. "Barry, plenty of women out there would like you just as you are."

"Right. Sure."

"Just try to stay out of trouble," I said, spying Victor heading our way.

"Shouldn't be a problem. I'm heading back to Texas with Stan tomorrow." Barry backed away from us. "I'll see you around."

He was gone before Victor reached us. In the second I had alone with Eric, I turned my back to Victor and knelt in front of Eric's chair. "How you holding up?"

Eric scanned the room over my head, his whole demeanor distracted from me. Then he gave me his entire attention for a split second. The blue of his eyes sparkled in the glittering ballroom lights. "I'm still with you, dear one," he said, touching his chest right in the middle.

I touched the same place on my chest, right between my breasts where the miniature marriage knife was warm from my skin. "Same back atcha."

Victor tapped me on the shoulder, so I stood and faced him. He wore his friendly look. "The king asks for your attendance at the dais."

"What for?" I asked, giving Eric a little wave as I was lead back across the room.

"He wants to lay claim to you in front of the other kings." Victor stopped me for just a minute. "Sookie… do whatever he asks. If you want to save yourself and Eric, just do what he asks. He would think nothing of executing you for treason in front of the entire party. He's done as much to others, and worse."

"Do you think he's gonna ask me to do something I won't want to do?" I looked over his shoulder for Pam, for Bill. I couldn't see either of them.

He moved me forward again. "I'm sure of it."

At the dais, Victor knelt, so I did as well. "Your Highnesses, may I present Miss Sookie Stackhouse, telepath."

Felipe nodded regally. "I believe Miss Stackhouse is already acquainted with Stan and Russell, Victor. You may return to the party."

I hadn't been told to stand so I stayed on my knees but it rankled. Safety first, I reminded myself. Pride could be dealt with later.

"Miss Stackhouse has come from Louisiana to serve my court," Felipe told the other kings. I detected a hint of bragging there. "She's proving to be a beautiful addition. Already, her skills have cleaned up a little problem- the weretiger female, you may recall."

"Ah, yes," Stan said. I felt his eyes on me but I didn't look up. "She is very useful but I've found her skills limited in a way Barry's are not."

"Victor tells me that is no longer a limitation for Sookie," the king replied. He sounded sort of irritated that Stan would talk badly about his property. That would be me.

Russell, who had been holding a brief, whispered conversation with one of his underlings, looked down at me. "Miss Stackhouse, I am delighted to see you again."

I took that as permission to speak. "I'm glad to see you here too," I said truthfully. He wasn't a friend, or an ally exactly, but he'd always treated me fairly enough.

Russell nodded to Felipe. "Miss Stackhouse once took injury in defense of my second."

Felipe grinned at me, his teeth so white against his full, red lips. A beautiful man, I thought, but crazy-deadly. "It gladdens me to hear such a good report of her character."

Victor returned to stand at my shoulder. "All is prepared as you requested, your Highness."

_All of what? _I wished I really could read their minds. Something was going on beneath the surface here. Something I didn't think I'd like. I looked to Victor for answers. He looked right back at me but gave away nothing.

"Your highness?" I squeaked. "I need to go, uhm, go take care of my human needs in the washroom. If that's okay with you."

Felipe's black eyes bore down at me. He parted his lips just enough to flash fang.

"Uhm, or not," I stuttered.

Rising on the dais, Felipe stood straight in that way he had that made people forget he was on the short side of things. Victor clapped his hands sharply three times. The sin of the vampires chatting on the dance floor went silent other than the rustle of clothes as everyone turned to look at Felipe.

And Felipe was still looking at me.

Victor bowed to the king, and then faced the crowd. "Greetings, friends of Nevada!"

A muted cheer rose and fell, as if we were at the world's most boring football game.

"Welcome to our little party. Tonight marks the fiftieth anniversary of our king's reign over this fine state. We celebrate those years and invite you to celebrate with us." Victor raised a glass of blood over his head, giving cheers to the group. Half a dozen identical glasses were raised throughout the crowd in response.

"Our king's most recent triumph has been the acquisition of Louisiana. Already, this has proven to be a wise and profitable decision. And here as a representation of the king's dominance of that lovely state is the equally lovely Miss Stackhouse." He raised his glass to me, still down on my knees. "Sookie, welcome."

I froze like a deer with a car barreling towards it. Through the bond, I felt my anxiety matched by Eric's. I didn't dare look down at him. Where _was _Pam?

Felipe came down the three steps to where I stood. He held out a hand to raise me up. I played along because I didn't really have another choice though all of my instincts screamed at me to run. "Your highness?" I whispered.

Felipe gave me what I think he would consider a reassuring smile. It wasn't. Lifting his face to the crowd, he said, "I will now take blood from this woman in front of you all, as a symbol of my ever-growing supremacy."

_Oh shit! _Okay, this was not supposed to happen now! Eric thought it'd take only a few sips from me to knock the king right on his ass, based on the amount of the silver tincture I'd consumed. If he drank from me and died here in front of a million vampires, I'd be dead two seconds after Felipe hit the floor. I felt Eric's anger and fear like a shot of fire in my gut. I looked up at him, hoping he'd have an idea. He was struggling to stand. And failing. His rage raised goose bumps all over me. He looked at me in despair. He was helpless.

Felipe watched this exchange. It seemed to make him happy. Knowing how closely linked sex and blood-taking are for vampires, I hoped a meal was all he had in mind. Because if he wanted anything else, I didn't think I could help but fight, even if it meant my life and Eric's as well.

_Pam? Bill? _I mouthed to Eric across the room. He shook his head. I was on my own.

A hush fell over the crowd as everyone watched Felipe take me into his arms. This close, he smelled of vampire and hair tonic. My heart fluttered like the wings of a frantic bird, trapped and captive. Felipe ran his finger down the side of my neck. I saw the lights shine off his curved fangs.

"Wait, your highness, please," I said, "Can't we do this someplace private?" I waved my hand toward our audience. "I'm feeling sort of shy."

"Don't worry, _cara_. It's just a little blood." He lowered his mouth to the skin of my throat and licked.

_Ugh._ I leaned as far back from him as I could. With his arm wrapped hard around my waist, that was only about an inch. He was in no hurry; he licked up and down, then nibbled lightly. I was glad I couldn't see the look on Eric's face because the fury I felt from him through the bond was a frightening thing.

"Wait!" Eric roared from his place across the room. Felipe didn't even flicker. I guess he'd been expecting Eric to protest.

Felipe's hair was in my face. I couldn't see anything so I closed my eyes. I tried to pretend I was someplace else, with someone else. Anyone, anywhere, would have been better. Felipe's arm tightened and he bit me a little harder but still not hard enough to draw blood. The crowd actually cheered a bit when my knees buckled.

And then Felipe jerked away from me so quickly, I couldn't tell what was happening. I fell backwards with so much force, I landed on my behind several feet from where we'd been standing. Pam was hovering over me, facing the crowd. "Glad to finally see you," I said, standing up with some difficulty. I'd gotten the wind knocked out of me. Eric was bobbing his head from side to side, trying to see me around the many people who milled about between his chair and my side of the room. I waved to him, letting him know I was fine. I felt his relief.

Felipe had also been knocked to the ground only he wasn't getting up so fast. He was alive though, just stunned. Victor knelt beside him, one hand on Felipe's shoulder, the other pointing to the side door. I heard him tell Charlotte to follow him. "Him who?" I asked Pam.

"Bill. He went out that door. But she won't catch him." Pam's lips twitched. "And even if she does, she won't bring him back for punishment. He has leverage over her."

"Leverage? Huh? Does Eric know about this?" I figured it was from when she'd been working for him at Fangtasia.

"No, Eric doesn't know. It's more between Bill and myself. In any case, your ex just saved all of our lives. Had that happened as it would've without Bill's intervention, none of us would have made it to tomorrow night." Pam pointed a finger at me, as if making sure I was taking this whole thing seriously. "Earlier tonight, someone wrapped Bill's and mine coffins in silver chains. We couldn't get out for a long time. They were trying to keep you here unprotected. It had to have been at Felipe's order. It's now more important than ever that our plan succeed. Victor will forgive Bill this action but Felipe never will."

"Why would Bill do this?" The words came out before I really thought. "Oh, well, I guess I know why. But still."

"You owe him your gratitude but you don't owe him yourself," Pam said.

_Dear Abby strikes again. _ Charlotte came back in through the door, shaking her head. She looked upset. Victor looked… fine. Normal. I guess he didn't mind Bill's interruption all that much. He might've minded if he'd known that his path to the throne had nearly been opened.

"Pam…" Something occurred to me, something I should've asked earlier. "How long to I have before this stuff is out of my bloodstream?"

She shrugged. "No one knows. It depends on your metabolism and frankly, the dose you took would've killed ten vampires."

Great. So I'd better figure out something here. The party was dissipating. Vampires, sensing the sunrise getting closer, were making their way back to their rooms, singly and in pairs. Felipe stood up but held onto Victor's arm with one hand. He did not look cheerful. He looked like someone who'd been so embarrassed, he'd skipped straight to infuriated. Stan nodded to me as he left the ballroom. I saw Russell Edgington stop by Eric's chair on his way out. Whatever he said to Eric, it must've been nice enough because Eric's relief was still all I could sense from him.

I straightened my spine. "Pam, can you come with me a sec?" I didn't wait for her; I knew she had my back. I strode to Felipe and went to my knees in front of him. I felt Eric's relief turn into unease. Well, thanks, I thought, battling my own nervousness.

"Yes?" Felipe straightened the hem of his vest.

"We were interrupted," I said, looking up at him from underneath my eyelashes in a way I hoped he'd find coy. "Why don't we find a private place?"

Felipe studied me, kneeling in front of him. I was breathing too quickly but it did push out my chest into its fullest prominence. I was sure he was looking down the top of my dress. What he couldn't see were my toes, which were clenched so hard inside my shoes that my arches ached. But I showed no other outward sign of the disgust I felt.

His long, tan fingers reached out to stroke my hair. "What do you think, Victor? Would she make a good nestmate for Charlotte?"

_Oh Lord. _I hoped he took my shivering to be excitement rather than terror.

"It's an honor to be made a vampire, especially by a king," Felipe continued. "Would you like that honor?"

I didn't say a word. I couldn't. It didn't seem to matter. Felipe traced my cheek with the back of his hand. "A vampire with such special… skills. It's been many years since I created a child." He reached down and took my hand into both of his. Tugging me gently to my feet, he smiled deeply, in a way I'd never seen him smile before. He had a dimple on the left side of his mouth. "Come, _cara_. Let's begin your new life."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

We went up the elevator to the throne room, just Felipe, Victor, Pam and me. I did not look at Eric as we left. I just couldn't. Shame filled me at the very thought of him watching me play this act. I pushed it away because our lives were at stake here. All I wanted in the world was to go home. To go to sleep safely in my bed at home, knowing with the certainty of the blood bond that Eric was busy and content at Fangtasia. As it was, all I felt through the bond was fear, his and my own.

Felipe practically thrummed with excitement. "This will be a great moment for you," he told me, leading me out of the elevator and through the throne room to one of the side doors. "The greatest of your life. Not your human life but your new life. A telepathic vampire will be greatly favored."

The door opened to reveal an empty board room with a long, shiny table surrounded by chairs. A second door behind the table opened to a bedroom. With a large bed sitting smack-dab in the center. And the thickest light-tight drapes I'd ever seen.

Victor and Pam hovered in the doorway. Pam had two lines running on either side of her mouth, stress creases I'd never seen on her before. _This silver stuff better work. _I'd agreed to this plan but suddenly, all I could think of were problems. What if the silver didn't actually get in my bloodstream? I'd swallowed it, not injected it. What if it had already absorbed and all Felipe would get when he drank from me was, well, me?

I was willing to bet Pam had already had all of these thoughts. Her being here served no purpose though it was sort of comforting. But I had other worries too. "Pam, why don't you go see how Eric's doing?" He was in a room of vampires, totally defenseless. Unless Bill had returned.

Obviously relieved, Pam grabbed both of my hands in hers. "You are sure?" She meant more than whether or not I wanted her to go back downstairs.

"As sure as I'm gonna get," I told her. I squeezed her cold hands, wishing I could leave with her, wishing with all my heart. "Tell Eric…" What could I tell him? Nothing seemed fitting. "Tell him I…" I took a deep breath and took a leap. "Tell him I said that I love him."

Pam laughed, a snorting, huge guffaw. "You want me to tell Eric you love him?"

I glared at her. "It's not funny, Pam. I mean it."

"It's not funny, no, and I know you mean it. But your timing definitely has some humor to it. I will pass along your message." She shook her head and walked away, still chuckling.

I looked to Victor next. "What about you?" He didn't have a clue what was about to happen. I guessed he knew I was up to something that he'd want to see.

"I will stay to guard my king," he said, cool as a cucumber. No one would guess him a traitor, not even Felipe, who'd been paranoid enough to kill off almost every vampire in Louisiana just in case they might bear a grudge. Victor would have made millions in Hollywood. He stood beside his king and said with an air of sincerity, "While making a new vampire, one is very vulnerable. When I made Charlotte, I wouldn't have heard an entire mob of attackers much less a single assassin."

Felipe nodded his approval. "I would also ask your help in securing Miss Stackhouse in darkness after our exchange."

_After my death. _But that wouldn't happen. I held onto that thought tightly for comfort. None of this stuff would really happen. I didn't let myself think about what _would _really happen either because I didn't want to show any hint of it in my eyes or voice. I would've been laughed off any Hollywood set. Too honest, that was me, the most honest vampire murdered in town.

I was starting to feel braver… until Felipe reached up and removed his shirt and vest with two quick tugs. His caramel chest was utterly smooth. When his fingers dropped to his waistband, I felt every bit of bravery slip out of me. "What are you doing?"

Felipe looked baffled by my question but I thought that was just for show. "This is the way these things are done." He slipped his pants down his legs. Thank god he was a boxers-type of guy, I thought, until he slid those off too. He was hairless all over. I blushed hard. "Now you," he said.

Whoo boy. This is not what I signed on for. I looked at Victor. "Turn around," I told him, reminding myself to act like I wanted this. Then an idea struck. I forced a shiver. "Your highness, it's cold in here. Would you mind if I keep some clothing on?"

"Ah, _si. _I forget about human cares after all of these years. Soon you will be beyond such worries as well." He unbuttoned my blouse in a rapid manner, rushing to the main course. The last two buttons popped off as he pulled. His mouth fell on the curve of my neck. "You taste so sweet, _cara,_" he murmured, licking and nibbling. There was a drool factor. Ugh. I hated every second.

"Can we, uh…" I braced one hand against his chest for space, wanting to say, 'slow down!'

"Go to the bed? Certainly." He lowered me onto the mattress, which was good because my muscles felt like water running over my bones. Lying beside me, he lifted me on top of him in one swift movement before I could even think.

_Not good!_ His mouth moved in circles over my pulse. Down lower, I felt the ridge of his erection pressing against me. So very, very grateful for being allowed to keep on my clothing, I tried to ignore his excitement. I thought of Eric and how incensed he would be if he could see me now. Bad thought, I had to stay relaxed. I thought of the articles about movie actors who got into bed with other actors and had to mimic sex in front of people, on camera, knowing their spouses might someday see the footage. It didn't make me feel any better. My stomach churned. I wished he'd just _bite me_, already.

And then he did, and I wished it undone a second later because his mouth gripped me with such strength. It felt less like a bite and more like he was tearing into me. I remembered his curved fangs; now I knew their purpose. Blood didn't just run out of me, it gushed between our two bodies. Felipe moaned, tightening his hands in my hair. I moaned too, from the pain and from the fury I sensed from Eric as he felt my pain. Felipe drank. And drank.

I felt him orgasm and waited for him to die.

It didn't take long. Less than a minute. It began as a large spasm, almost like a seizure. He released me, shoved me away so hard, I fell off the bed and into Victor's legs. I heard Felipe scream.

Coated in my own blood, my bra soaked with it and in plain sight, I scrambled away on my hands and knees. Victor watched Felipe, his hands on his hips, doubling over as he laughed and laughed like a demented clown. His laughter scared me even more. The sounds from the bed were horrible. I couldn't see much from my position on the floor.

Suddenly, Pam was there. She grabbed me and held me with my head turned into her shoulder. "You've done well. You don't want to see this part," she said.

She took me out of the room. I thought we'd stop in the throne room to wait for Victor, for whatever reason. I saw Bill there and though nothing much could have surprised me at that moment, his presence did. The look he gave me was an entire poem I didn't want to read right then. I let Pam take me into the elevator and to our room.

Eric was there, lying in the bed but propped up with so many pillows, he was sitting upright. "Sookie," he said when we came through the door, but Pam shook her head hard at him. I felt his joy through the bond but I was numb, too numb to let it sink in.

Pam led me into the bathroom. She undressed me in a clinical way but gently, careful of the gaping wound in my neck. "It isn't sealing up," I said, poking at it with one fingertip. I winced. "Why isn't it healing?"

"Felipe didn't finish." Pam picked up my pants from the floor. On them, Felipe's semen was a darker, shiny blotch. "Or, at least, he didn't finish that part."

Bile rose in my throat. I opened the toilet just in time. Pam drew back my hair and held it for me as everything came up. I hate to puke; the feeling that I can't breathe normally overwhelms me. But not this time. I was so beyond feeling anything.

Pam washed me like a mother. I never knew she had it in her. She did show me her fangs but really, I thought that was just her way of being polite. I held a hand towel to the hole in my neck. By the time there wasn't a speck of blood left on me and I was wrapped in a huge, fluffy, white towel, I could breathe normally again.

While Pam slipped out the door for a minute, I stood at the mirror and examined my neck. Ugh. It looked like I'd been attacked by a small but vicious pit bull. Pam returned as quietly as she'd left but I couldn't stop looking at the wound. Felipe's last meal. It was still open and raw but the bleeding had stopped. The queasiness returned but I just kept on staring at myself until Pam turned me gently. "Eric's ready for you," she said.

"Ready for me to do what?" I asked, following her to the main room.

Eric hadn't moved. He looked so much better than he had since we'd first gotten him free from the casket. A little of the old Eric sparkle was back in his eyes. This registered on some level but all of the rest of me was weighted down by an unnatural exhaustion. I guess that was trauma.

"Sookie, remember what I told you about the coagulant in our saliva?" He gestured to the empty blood bag on the nightstand beside him. "Come here. Let me heal you."

"What about the silver?" I asked. "It's probably still in my blood."

"The wound is closed. It won't hurt me."

I heard the click of the front door opening and shutting and knew we were alone. _I owe Pam big-time_, I thought as I crawled up the bed to Eric's side. The pillows were cushy and welcoming. I thought for one second that nothing had ever felt so good that those pillows as I rested my head and closed my eyes with a big sigh. "You know he is dead, right?"

Eric nodded, his eyes wide in his beautiful, pale face. "I am sorry such a thing was necessary and even more sorry for the role you needed to play in bringing it about." He leaned over and kissed my mouth lightly, then moved lower and licked at my neck. For a half-second, I felt panicked, remembering Felipe's tongue where Eric's now stroked. I forced the memory away. I wasn't gonna let Felipe take away anything else from us. I closed my eyes and allowed myself to sink into the pillows and relax.

"Better?" Eric's voice came from far, far away, it seemed. My neck tingled but no longer hurt. I felt the blanket being drawn up over my legs. "Sookie?"

"Mmm?" I couldn't have opened my eyes if my life depended on it.

Eric's hair brushed both sides of my face. His lips pressed into my forehead. My life didn't depend on it but I learned I could open my eyes anyway… and found Eric's face an inch from mine. He held my hands. I'd rarely seen him so concentrated and it was all on me. "Sookie," he said again. "I thank you. For what you did for us. And for…" He paused, I think to make sure I knew how important it was, what he was trying to tell me. "For the message you sent to me through Pam."

_Oh, that little thing._ "Did you know they gave me medicine so I wouldn't feel you through the bond while you were… with Charlotte?"

"No, but I'm very, very glad that they did so." He darted a glance toward the door and back. I figured he'd planned to give Pam a big bonus for that.

"Well, something funny happened when the bond wasn't there." I made a face. "I guess these feelings are really mine. Bond or no bond."

Eric's face broke into the smile that lit up something inside me in response. The one that said he was happy all the way down to his toes. "I never doubted that, you know. The bond doesn't create something from nothing. It only reflects."

"I know that now. When I used to feel happy when I saw you, I thought it was the bond making me feel like that. But… no, I was just happy to see you."

"Just?" Eric asked, lifting up one of my hands and rubbing my knuckles against his mouth.

"Happy," I said firmly. I took my hand from inside his. His hair was long and loose on my shoulder. I took up a lock of it and a lock of mine and braided them together in an absent sort of way. We both watched the twisting of my fingers. "Do you think we'll be home tomorrow night?"

At my change of subject, Eric moved away a little but not enough to pull my hair from his. "That depends on how quickly Victor can secure his situation here. I'm assuming he has all of the necessary steps in order. You'll remember how well-organized the Nevada vampires were in their take-over of Louisiana? That was all Victor's doing. For him to have taken this step, I'm sure the groundwork will be there. He's never been foolhardy or impulsive."

The mention of Victor reminded me of something. "Bill was upstairs."

Eric nodded. "He was there to help Victor with Felipe's remains."

"Huh?" It never occurred to me to wonder what would be done with the body. I had been too focused on the death itself. "Will there be trouble about all this?"

Eric was quiet for a moment. Then he said, "Quinn's mother is dead."

That was all I needed to hear. The other pieces fell into place as if I _could _read Eric's mind. And maybe I was gleaning a bit. Hard to say. "Bill killed her."

"No, Charlotte. At her king's request- Victor's, that is. It was something of a mercy. The situation with the Renfield had put her into a deep psychosis. And Victor would have killed the tiger anyway for what she'd done."

"When I saw Bill, he'd brought her body in?"

"That is what Pam tells me. He will leave it in the king's bed along with the king's body. After it is… altered to suit the story."

_Torn up like a tiger'd eaten him._ "I see." Poor Quinn. I even managed to feel pity for Frannie, hateful though she is. "And Quinn?"

"Quinn wasn't with his mother when Bill went to her. And afterwards, he took his sister and got out of town."

"I guess that's best." I snuggled deeper into the pillows. Our hair separated but Eric rested his chin on my shoulder, curling his long body around mine like a long caress. "So we can go home now?"

"Tomorrow night. I won't take the chance of being transported during the daylight hours just now."

He wouldn't be making himself at all vulnerable. Eric had never been reckless, far from, but he'd always seemed secure with his ability to protect himself. All that certainty he'd had must've gotten a good, hard shake by his torture. I rubbed my cheek against his forehead. "I'll be awake. I'll keep an eye on you."

Eric tightened around me. "That is a nice thing to know. Sunrise is soon."

"I know." I kicked the blanket a little so it folded over his legs too. "Are you feeling better?"

"I can walk now. I will be whole again." He cupped one of my breasts in his hand and left it there. It felt nice. "And then we can…"

Hugging his arm to my chest, I felt my mouth curve. "Yes we can."

*****

I slept for a very long time. I guessed I'd earned a rest. When I woke up, it was late afternoon and Eric was sprawled across most of the bed, one arm flung over my hips, one leg over my legs. Which explained why they felt dead. I sat up and disentangled myself. The pins and needles sensation stung as I stood.

My mouth tasted like something small and furry had died in it. Ugh. The minifridge had orange juice, which I guzzled down in no time flat. I needed food. Funny how spending most of my time with vampires let me forget little things like that sometimes. A basket with complimentary packages of trail mix and miniature bars of chocolate had been shoved on top of the fridge by someone who didn't need food to live. It would tide me over. I wasn't anxious to leave Eric behind.

Everything felt off, like the sky just before a storm, when it's heavy with ozone and you know something big is coming. I hated having to wait around for the vampires to wake up. It seemed like such a waste of time when I could be on my way home right now. I'd done what I came to do, after all. So why did the back of my neck feel like it was waiting for teeth to sink in?

There was a quiet knock at the door. I sent out my extra sense before I did anything else. Nothing. So I opened the door very carefully until I saw that it was Mr. Cataliades standing on the other side.

"C'mon in!" I whispered with a backwards glance at the bed before remembering that I could yell and Eric wouldn't flicker.

"Miss Stackhouse, I'm glad to see you are well enough," he said, shutting the door behind himself.

I motioned to the chair but he shook his head. "Victor was very busy last night."

I stared at him, wondering how much he knew and how much I could tell him. "Yes?"

He stared right back at me. Maybe he was wondering the same thing I was. "I send Diantha to make arrangements for you and Eric and his people to return to Louisiana tonight."

Relief was like warm water down my back. "Oh, thank you so much!"

"I know you will be pleased to return to your home." He paused for a long, weighted moment. "Felipe's body was given to the sun this morning. I performed that duty per Victor's request. Victor is acting as king."

"Oh yeah?"

"No one seems to find this surprising."

I wondered how many of Felipe's vamps Victor had put in his pocket and how long they'd been there. "I guess that makes sense."

"Yes." Another moment passed, where he seemed to be reaching a decision. "Miss Stackhouse, Victor is a man of great depths. He masterminded the takeover of Louisiana."

"Uh-huh?"

"He is not a bad man but neither is he to be trusted. Please watch yourself carefully."

"I will. But… why? Do you know something?"

"Did Victor tell you Mrs. Quinn murdered his Renfield?"

That seemed way off course. "Well, no, but I did know that anyhow."

"His Renfield had been with him for decades. Felipe would never give Victor permission to turn the man, despite Victor's many appeals. Felipe was scared, you see, of the power the Renfield had, power that would then have been eternally in Victor's hands. Then, eventually, the Renfield's mind began to deteriorate. This always occurs in such cases. Victor needed a replacement. So Victor sent his Renfield to Mrs. Quinn. He knew what would occur."

"Why are you telling me this?"

Mr. Cataliades glanced down at his watch. Rolex, I thought, not that I knew a lot about those things. He opened the door and nodded farewell to me. "Miss Stackhouse, the Renfield was a telepath."

The door closed on his words. I wanted to yank it back open and demand he tell me more but that was of no use. He'd told me enough, at any rate, to figure out what he meant.

Victor had spent all his undead life under Felipe's thumb. His was the superior intelligence. He must've felt he should have always had Felipe's power. But Felipe was always the more ruthless one. That had given the edge to Felipe- the edge and the throne. Thrones.

I had to leave. I knew that. But… everything was in Victor's hands. Only his word could reinstate Eric to his area and me to my home under Eric's protection. We needed Victor. Badly.

I sat beside Eric, wishing he were awake. Or Pam. Or anyone who could tell me what to do. A couple of years of dealing with vampires had not taught me the savvy Eric and Pam had picked up over centuries and I had no illusions about that.

It was tempting to phone Sam and ask what he thought but Sam would just tell me to high-tail it home, in no uncertain terms. The Weres owed me a favor, still, but after Dawson, it wasn't one I could use. Besides, it would just turn bloody; those Weres weren't exactly known for their peaceable solutions. And I didn't know the local pack at all.

I would've given my left arm to see Claudine right then. Poor Claudine.

Hmm. I had a thought but it seemed almost ridiculous. But given the desperate circumstances, I figured, why not?

I picked up the phone and dialed. Claude answered on the third ring. "Yes?"

"Hey, Claude, it's me, Sookie." Belatedly, I wondered if he held a grudge since his sister was murdered defending me. Boy, you think I might've considered that doozy before dialing.

"What do you want?" His voice was caustic but no more so than usual.

I filled him in on the situation. His response was underwhelmed. "So?"

You know, six months ago, I'd had a sweetheart of a cousin and a protective (if endangering) great-grandfather to rely on. And now, all the family members left to me were Claude and Jason. There was something so wrong about that. "So… you've been dealing with vamps a lot longer than I have. What do you think I should do?"

"How the hell should I know? Go along with Victor. Give him want he wants and he'll give you what you want for Eric. And you can live the high life in Vegas." There was a voice in the background, male and insistent. "I've got to go." And he hung up.

I gritted my teeth. I hoped Claudine was waiting in the Summerlands for Claude to get there someday and when he did, I bet she'd give him a good ass kicking. I got up and paced around. Eric, dead to the world, was none the wiser when I gave him a little- but solid- kick in my frustration.

If Victor tried to turn me, he would die, I realized. At least, I thought the silver might still be in my system. And as long as I kept drinking the stuff, he couldn't drink from me. There was still the third vial, wherever Eric had hidden it.

Of course, Victor could simply lock me away where I couldn't get access to it. Though I might be able to talk Claude into poofing in and out with some refills. In that case, he couldn't hurt me but he could still hurt Eric until I cooperated. I don't know that I would've cooperated at the cost of my life, though. I don't think that's something a person knows for sure until they're put into that position.

In any case, I would need more leverage. Something to keep Eric from harm as surely as the silver would protect me. I thought about what Claude had told me: give Victor what he wants. And then it struck me that there was a way I might be able to do just that.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

By the time the vampires woke up and Bill and Pam had congregated in our room, I'd eaten a meal in the hotel restaurant, walked to a Starbucks down the street and got an iced tea to go, returned to the hotel and found Barry Bellhop passed out in Charlotte's bed.

Finding him had been the easy part thanks to my willingness to talk with the housekeeping staff. Less easy had been waking him up but I'd managed it eventually. I'd even remembered to get him to wipe the ring of vampire blood from around his mouth. Charlotte must have been a giving woman in more ways than one.

Barry didn't protest coming with me until he realized that he'd be facing Eric. But I reminded him with a sharp thought that I could end his life with a single word to Stan about made-up telepathy. After that, he was nice as pie, externally. Internally, I could feel his resentment. But I couldn't make myself care.

The whole story of Mr. Cataliades' visit took only a minute to tell. The vampires grasped the implications immediately. Craft vamps.

Pam opened the minifridge and passed out bottles of True Blood. The vampires didn't like it as well cold but Pam wasn't about to play short order cook and use the microwave. She took a small sip of hers and said, "I'd heard of Victor's Renfield. He was long-lived for one of his kind. You would hate being a Renfield even more than a vampire, Sookie. If you have an option, go for dead."

"Neither one of those things is gonna happen. Victor can't drink from me." I tapped the inside of my wrist. "Right now I'm still a poisoned apple."

Barry said, "Huh? Apple?"

We ignored him. "And as long as I keep the apple poisoned, I'm safe. But you guys aren't. Victor is your king now. So… let's give him what he wants."

"Never." Bill and Eric spoke in unison. They glared at each other. Bill looked away first.

Eric turned his glare to me. "I will not let him touch you." The distaste in his voice was heavy as oil. "Sookie, I swear, I would sooner see you dead than degraded as a Renfield. And you would not want to be Victor's vampire child."

"Of course not. Victor doesn't want me, specifically. He just wants a telepath." I tipped my chin toward Barry, who shrank slightly in his chair. "He'd be particularly into a telepath would could hear vampire's thoughts. Especially if that telepath had a vested interest in staying on the vampire's good side."

Barry gaped at me, his dark eyes huge in his long, pasty face. "Why would I work for Victor?"

I started to reply but Eric cut me off. "To save your own skin." He got up and loomed over Barry. I don't think Barry realized the amount of effort it took Eric to stand so fluidly. He was still in a lot of pain. Eric rested his hands on the arm rests of Barry's chair, getting right in Barry's face in the process. "Bellhop, you will do this."

I realized he was putting the whammy on Barry. "Eric, it needs to be his choice."

All of the vampires looked at me with equal amounts of disgust. Bill, standing sentry by the door, even chuckled. "Eric, she likes to complicate matters." It sounded like a warning.

I narrowed my eyes. "Yeah, well, it does! We are not the bad guys," I told the vampires. Haha. Maybe to Barry, we were.

Eric backed off but continued to loom. "This is a good place for you, Bellhop. Think about it for a moment. You have a willing donor in Charlotte. You will get your fix without risking your neck. And Victor will hold you in high esteem and treat you well, unlike Stan, who seems to pull you out like a trick pony. Victor's Renfield had his own home and many amusements. And you could start fresh. If Stan ever learns that you've lied to him about your ability to read vampires, you'd be lucky to receive a quick dead. Here, you would be safer."

My nerves sang. I sat on my hands because the impulse to bite my nails was so strong. I wanted Barry to agree to this. I needed him to. I found my Starbucks cup and took a long drink to soothe my dry throat.

Barry groaned, rubbing his face. "I don't know. I need to think."

Pam snapped her fingers at him to make him look up at her. "What do you mean, you don't know? You stupid boy, what do you have in Texas that is so great? Nothing. Right?" She didn't wait for him to answer. Pam didn't know much about Barry… or maybe she did, in that way vampires have of keeping tabs on the "assets" of each other. "We are making you an offer you should be grateful to receive. Here you have an opportunity for which you will be well-compensated. You can choose to take it or…"

Bill filled in the rest for her. "We can make you want to take it."

Barry's hands shook. "You can't. Sookie won't let you."

"Sookie is not in any position to make demands on me," Bill shot back.

I flushed. He wasn't wrong but there was a world of bitterness in his tone. Eric took a step toward Bill, then stopped and shook his head. "This gets us nowhere. Bellhop, what is your decision?"

Barry took a deep breath. "I'll do it. Victor seems fair enough. And things have been weird between Stan and Joseph since Joseph took over after Rhodes. I think there might be trouble coming down there between those two." He considered for a second. "Sort of like what happened here. It might be better to be out of that fire."

He excused himself to use the bathroom. As he walked past me, he sent me a thought, loud enough that I would be sure to hear it. _"Stan promised to make me a vampire someday. I'd rather die. Victor will protect me if I make myself useful enough."_

A decent person would have warned Barry that Victor might very well want to make him a vampire. I was a decent person but I was tired, weary right down to my bones. And I had others to consider: Eric, first and foremost, but also Pam and Bill.

Besides, Barry knew vampires as well as I did, maybe better in some respects given his predilection. He would have to watch out for himself by himself; my ability to help was already stretched too thin. I reached out and squeezed his hand quickly. _"I hope so."_

*****

There was a short debate between Bill and Pam over whether or not we should go up to meet Victor in his throne room. Eric settled things: "We wait here," he decreed from the bed where he lounged. He fingered a small bottle- the last remaining vial Bill had stolen from Charlotte.

Eric was the only man I knew who was capable of looking regal lying amongst throw pillows. _He could be king_, I thought. I wondered if Eric had considered it. Victor didn't know about the silver in my blood unless he'd guessed what had killed Felipe. I could pull the same trick on him, maybe, if he hadn't figured it out. And then Eric could step into all that power. I hadn't even considered killing Victor past a fleeting thought because I didn't know who would replace him. Had Eric thought of this?

Yes, he had. I was certain of it, looking at Eric lounging against the headboard. No detail like that would ever escape Eric's diabolically pragmatic mind. He'd thought of it… and rejected it. And I was glad. Sure, it would have kept us pretty safe. That's why Eric would have thought about it and thought hard. But power brought about its own risks. Look at Sophie-Anne… and Felipe.

I didn't want Eric on any throne, for his own safety and for mine as well. What better pawn against him than his human wife? Wife… I could almost think of that concept without cringing. Almost. But that was a conversation for another time. We had bigger fish to fry.

There were also selfish reasons that made the idea of Eric being king objectionable. I recalled what Quinn had said a couple of months before- that Eric would always choose his power and people over me. I realized I'd been staring at Eric when I saw him looking back, his eyes narrowed like a cat's. He held out a hand and I went to him.

"Sookie, you are thinking so hard, I can almost hear your thoughts. I wish that I could."

I shrugged. "Yeah, well, it's a thinking kind of day."

"What has you so concerned? And concerned about me, if the look you were giving me is any indication."

I didn't really want to tell him. I was sure he'd thought of it but on the off-chance he hadn't, I didn't want to give him any ideas. But I needed to. "Hmm. Well. You know, you could have Victor's throne. We could make that happen." The words were hard to force out and I was sure Eric could feel my reluctance through the bond. "It wouldn't be easy but we could."

"Regicide makes you cocky, dear one," Eric said. His thumb made little circles on the top of my hand. "I did consider that possibility. But I rejected it. It would put us at greater risk in some ways. And ruling a kingdom would consume all of my time. Especially one the size of Victor's." His thumb moved up to stroke the inside of my wrist. "I have other plans for my time." He winked at me.

_Take that, Quinn._ "If you're sure," I said but I was just dithering and we both knew it. I leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth gently. "I'm glad."

He held my face to his with a finger underneath my chin and gave me a thorough kissing. His lips melted across mine, over and over until the position gave me a crick in my neck. I pulled away reluctantly, glancing at Pam, Bill and Barry from the corner of my eye. They weren't paying attention (or were pretending hard that they weren't). Barry reclined on the couch on the far side of the room, his back to us, playing Solitaire with a deck of cards he'd unearthed from the side table drawer. Pam and Bill just… sat. I wished that humans could do that downtime thing. It looked peaceful.

Eric brought my attention back to him. "Sookie. Are you sure that Barry will do this thing of his own free will?"

I looked back at Barry but he wasn't paying any attention. A quick scan of his mind told me he was deeply involved in thoughts of Charlotte (eew). Those same thoughts gave me my answer. "Yeah, he'll do it. He has a big ole thing for Victor's Charlotte. Guys like him… guys who are used to being ignored… all they need is a little attention and then the woman owns them."

Eric had no idea what I meant. Not too surprising. No woman would ever ignore Eric. "There is still time to enforce our will upon him. It would take away any room for error. It is the safest way to go."

"No." I wanted to say yes. Really, really wanted to. How much of a difference was there between this and getting Amelia and Octavia to bespell Tanya? And that didn't bother my conscious one little bit. But… no, this was different. Barry was putting himself into the same position I would have almost rather died than occupy. I kept telling myself it wouldn't be as bad for him.

He finally heard my thoughts. _It's okay, Sookie. I've been thinking about it and I think it'll be good for me here._ I got a mental flash from his mind: Charlotte spread naked. Ugh. Gross.

_Okay, great! _I thought back at him and then put up the biggest mental block I could manage.

Eric watched me, a little, amused smile tugging at the edges of his mouth. "Alright, then," he said. "You have it settled."

"Yeah, I guess so," I said, hoping like hell that I did.

*****

It took Victor hours to get around to our little room. He sent Charlotte for us first but Eric told her to let Victor know we were unable to come to him. He claimed I was too unsettled from Felipe's death to go back into the throne room. I remembered Pam telling Victor that Eric's death would unhinge my "fragile" emotional stability a few days earlier. I guessed we were still playing that card and made a mental note to do my best to appear unbalanced.

The fact that Eric was willing to address Charlotte directly spoke to the amount of strength he was regaining. But he didn't want to pull the bait 'n switch (Barry for me) in front of Victor's supporters. He figured that Victor wouldn't consider us much of a threat if we were cozied up in our hotel room. Eric was a master at setting a scene so I had to agree with him. He even remained wearing nothing but a courtesy bathrobe with the name of the hotel blazoned across the breast. For the first time, I noticed we were staying in a hotel called Fangtasy Island. _Classy._

The phone rang. None of the others moved so I answered it. Oddly, no one was there on the other end. At Eric's suggestion, I called the front desk to ask if the caller had given their name before the call went through. The clerk could only tell me it had sounded like a man. He hadn't been chatty. Maybe it had been a wrong number, I thought, though it made me a little nervous.

Eric seemed to take it in stride. "At this point, there is nothing to be gained from worry."

"Easier said than done," I retorted, peeking out the window around the edge of the heavy shade. The night was moonless.

A knock came at the door. Everyone looked at Bill, our sentry. His face looked faintly puzzled. "Can you two smell that?"

Eric and Pam shook their heads. Pam moved to the entry area and took a big whiff. "Fairy."

_Whoa. _In an instant, fear filled me. We all stared at each other, wide-eyed and totally unprepared. I remembered the feeling I'd had earlier, of a storm coming. It had obviously arrived.

"I called Claude while y'all were asleep. Maybe he came by?" But it seemed far too out of character. "Also, um, there are humans out there too. And at least one vampire." I couldn't tell exactly how many there were of either; this was a hotel, anyone could be walking down that hallway for innocent purposes.

We had no weapons to speak of. Bill found a pole used for keeping the window jammed open a crack while still giving a measure of security. Pam grasped a chair and held it out in front of her like a lion tamer from an old cartoon.

Looking severely unhappy, Eric swept his hand between the mattress and the box spring. He pulled out a very large knife, which gave me the heebies but I was glad to see it. He motioned me closer, and then said, "Open the door."

So, after the thirty seconds of mad scrambling for makeshift weapons, I don't think anyone was too surprised to find the enemy at the door. But the fact that they bore tee-shirts with the Fellowship's trademark sunrise was the first shock. Also surprising was the man who looked just like my brother Jason. He stood at the front of the pack, holding Victor, who was unconscious, by the hair.

The second shocker was the smoke bomb they tossed in through the doorwar, filling the room with a noxious, purple cloud. This was followed by a thud and then, a few seconds later, a loud boom that shook everything for a moment and caused someone to yell out in pain. A lot of pain.

The hands that came out of the cloud, swiping away Eric and wrapping around my throat, were the third surprise.

When you are being held five feet in the air by the neck, your legs dangling, the life being choked out of you, there isn't a great deal of thinking you can do._ Oh God, oh God_ and _airairair_ were all I knew. That and the battle sounds: snarls, growls, thud and a piercing scream.

And then I hit the bed but I still could not breathe. Submerging fully into panic, I clawed and clawed at my throat. Black spots swam before my eyes but I saw Charlotte, of all people, crouching beside me. She took one look at me and grabbed the bottle Eric had left on the end of the bed. I couldn't see what she was doing- my vision was narrowed, I guess there was swelling going on- but I tasted something like blood and then suddenly, I could get air again. My fingers patted her knee in gratitude. I would've been grateful to Hitler in that moment, had he gotten me air.

"I'm sorry about everything," she said and she looked it, I thought, though it was kind of hard to tell right then.

I patted her again, thinking, _whatever._ The smoke was so thick that I still struggled with air. I pointed in the direction of the door. She got the hint and lifted me out toward the hallway.

Which was sort of a mistake because that's where the battle had been taken once the Fellowship people realized that while smoke gave them the initial jump on our little group, it hampered their own guys just as badly. But it was down the hall a ways, so Charlotte laid me down on the floor.

Barry screamed and I realized that his was the scream I'd heard earlier. He screamed because he was holding Bill, who was missing one of his legs. His left leg. I realized that the thing that had boomed and shaken the room had been a small bomb of some kind and that Bill, being closest to the door, had taken the impact. I realized all this in a detached sort of way, as if I were considering someone's new haircut or wondering where someone had gotten a certain hat. I thought of Bill's feet, which are narrow and delicate for a man. And one of them was now someplace on this floor, separated.

Victor lay near Bill, still out for the count. I wondered what they'd done to him and more, how they'd gotten to him. He had a very unnatural –looking indentation, as if someone had slammed something very heavy against the back of his head. I didn't want to meet the person who could sneak up on Victor but then, I realized, I already had.

Dermot and Eric were near each other. Eric sat with his back against the wall, his head tipped back, his eyes shut. We'd gotten pretty good about blocking the bond; when I tested it, I got a taste of his exhaustion and renewed pain. He'd done too much. And what he'd done was hack off Dermot's head with his big knife, which lay to the left of Dermot's fallen body. Dermot's head lay to the right. I knew soon he'd disintegrate into fairy powder, like the one I'd killed in my driveway.

It was eerie, looking at that disembodied head. Besides that fact that it was a bodiless head (a fact that didn't seem too terrible in my detached, traumatized state), it just looked so darn much like my brother. I looked at that Jason-like head, looked at Eric, looked at Bill and his horrible injury… between that and the sounds of the battling down the hallway, where Pam was sure to be, I was done in. I turned my face into the plush carpet and cried.

*****

What came next was the clean-up. The battle sounds went away. Vampires won, of course. Pam returned, bloodied and pumped full of energy. After scanning our little scene, she nodded to Eric and scooped me up under the armpits. I felt okay but not great. Dazed. She helped me to the bed. The smoke had cleared. On the bed, I found the little bottle from which Charlotte had fed me. It scared me to think of what it could have held. I tucked it into my pocket.

Next Pam brought in Bill. I was surprised to see that he was conscious. She left him on the floor beside the bed. I felt bad about that but I was grateful to not have to look at the stump of his leg. The burned smell was bad enough. He didn't seem to be bleeding much anymore, so that was good. Barry had pressed something against the wound. One of my shirts, one I'd hated, that I'd packed blindly in my rush to come rescue Eric. Pam handed him a bottle of True Blood and opened it for him before heading back out to the hall.

Barry came in on his own, with Charlotte draped around him, cooing at him. I blinked at them, having a hard time making sense of things still. Like why she was here. They went to the end of the room, to the couch. Barry was weepy and covered in Bill's blood. I guessed Bill owed him one.

It was Victor whom Pam placed on the bed with me. A political move, I thought. The dented skull looked a little less horrid, like a balloon that was slowly inflating. I couldn't stand to watch so I rolled over and pretended he wasn't there.

When Eric came in, he looked great. He was walking well and his color was… well, pale, but in a good way, ruddy for a vampire. He'd fed. I guessed Dermot's blood, being fairy and enemy and not only available but all over Eric, was too good to pass up before it turned into fairy dust. That was fine by me but I was glad I didn't have to watch. Had he fed from the head or the body? I pushed that question away as far as I could. I seriously did not want to know.

Eric looked at nothing and nobody but me. He made a beeline for the bed and knelt beside it, putting his face right by mine. With one gentle, blood-stained hand, he tucked back my hair. Our forehead's touched; I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. Eric shut his eyes. Through the bond, all I could feel was our mutual reassurance. It was a relief.

Then Charlotte spoke up. "Sookie?"

Eric's eyes opened and in them, I could see his anger at her very presence. "Eric, she saved my life," I whispered. Louder, I said, "What, Charlotte?"

"You should drink some more from that bottle. Just a small sip. Give Victor a sip too. And then have Bill drink the rest."

"What is this stuff?" I asked. Eric rocked back on his heels. I passed him the bottle to examine.

"You remember, when Eric was at Babes in Toyland, with me…" She hesitated over those words, and then hurried along. "Sookie, you'd taken sick so Victor and Pam gave Eric the antidote."

Eric nodded. "I was not in any condition to see the bottle or I would have recognized it." He uncapped it and gave me a small sip.

Immediately, my throat felt entirely better. Wow. If the fairies marketed this to humans, they'd make a killing. Though they wouldn't because then no one would've had a need for their other drugs that made them so much money. Also, they couldn't now, not anymore. The only fairy I knew who'd stayed behind was Claude. The only living fairy, that was. Considering the number of bad dreams I'd had over the last few months that all involved various ways Dermot might torture me to death, I was real glad about that.

Next, Eric dribbled some of the liquid into Victor's mouth. Like magic- well, I guess it _was_ magic- Victor sputtered back to life. His head re-inflated all the way too. He looked across the pillows at me and I knew his first thought was that we'd been in bed together in an entirely different manner. At least, until he noticed Eric standing over my shoulder.

I ignored them both for a minute because Bill was drinking the antidote. He gulped down the whole bottle. It was the strangest thing I'd ever seen: Bill had one leg and then I blinked and he had two. He wiggled his bare toes. I wondered if the bottom of that foot would have calluses like the other or if it would be as smooth as a newborn's.

Eric was watching too, I noticed, with a look of awe. "I've never seen anything like that before," he marveled. I could tell he was considering how he might re-create such a potion, for one split-second, until he realized that wouldn't be possible now that the fae were all gone. "Why wasn't it that effective when I drank it?"

Victor, figuring out what we were talking about faster than I would've given him credit for, said, "Silver is a poison like no other. This antidote was developed specifically for silver poisoning for use by the fae for their own people. It is as effective as any remedy could be but… silver is incredible potent stuff to us."

"Truly," Eric muttered darkly. I leaned my head against his shoulder in comfort and warning.

Victor took in the whole scene, person by person. "Would anyone care to tell me what just happened?"

At that point, I got up to go wash in the bathroom. I had a feeling my hair would be tinged purple from the smoke. I was right. I even had purple tear-tracks down my face. Through the door, I could hear everyone telling Victor about the battle. They said "Fellowship" but nothing about the fae. Charlotte hadn't seen Dermot's body disintegrate; she wouldn't know the fae had been there. I guess the vampires had decided it put us in a better light if Victor didn't know the bad guys had been there because of me. It had been clever of Dermot to get the help of the Fellowship. They must've thought he was an angel. And then I realized that the only person who could've told Dermot where I was, was Claude. Thinking of the hang-up call, I hoped he was okay.

I scrubbed my hands and face. Leaving behind purple-smeared washcloths on the countertop, I unlocked the door. As I went out, I heard Eric say, "And Barry Bellhop warned us of the impending attack, in time for us to prepare ourselves. He should be greatly rewarded."

Victor saw me enter. "You didn't know the attack was coming?"

_Game on_, I thought. "Who me? Oh, no. I told you, I don't read vampire brains so I wouldn't have heard anything around your attack. And then when the Fellowship was holding you outside the door, to me it just sounded like a bunch of people had come to check into the hotel all at one time." I smiled my nutty smile. "I think my ability has been impacted by my bond with Eric."

Victor raised an eyebrow. "Really. I'd heard that the bond was actually enhancing."

Eric motioned for me. I wrinkled my nose at him. It seemed a little too obedient to come when he beckoned like that. "The bond did help my abilities as first but then…" I shrugged. "It's been a hard couple of months."

Pam walked over and put her arm around me. "Sookie has been through a lot. I told you days ago, she's not very stable."

"Ah." Victor leaned back on the bed. "Well then. So." He opened his mouth again and then snapped it closed. With a snap, he beckoned Charlotte to his side. She came, towing Barry along with her by his hand.

It was funny to see Victor at such a loss. I guess he was so used to things going just as he planned, he wasn't sure how to handle it when they went off-course. I giggled and Pam sighed and squeezed me to her. "Poor Sookie," she said, her eyes glittering at me in a way that to Victor must have appeared regretful and to me looked like sheer amusement. Pam was having a grand ole time.

"Oh, Sookie, please do rest," Eric said in a very non-Eric, simpering tone. "I can feel your exhaustion through our bond. Pam, lay her on the couch."

Bill, still on the floor, tiny bottle hidden in his palm, actually groaned aloud at that. "Barry wants to stay here in Nevada and work for you, Victor," he said. If I hadn't known better, I would call him drunk. That must've been the outcome of losing and gaining a leg in a matter of minutes. "He wants to stay here and be your pet. And I want to get the hell home. Sookie and the rest of us too."

Charlotte's eyes narrowed as she stepped around Bill to get closer to Victor. "I wish you'd gone home days and days ago," she whispered in a loudish whisper, clearly designed to be heard by us all. "You asshole."

Bill waved her off with a hand like she were a gnat he'd felt buzzing around his head. "Victor, do you hear me?"

Barry fell to his knees at Victor's side. "I do hard work. I don't complain."

_I don't eat much and I come when I'm called,_ I thought as Pam took me to the couch and helped me lie down. I didn't need her to, of course, but I was supposed to be playacting so I slumped down on the thick cushions and watched the rest of the show.

Victor looked down his nose at Barry. "Has Stan released you from his service?"

At that, Eric spoke up. "Stan will release the boy. I guarantee it." He and Victor exchanged a weighted look.

Finally, Victor shrugged. "We'll see how it goes. 30 day trial period. You're on duty nightly, at my side. Room and board… well, it seems you are boarding with Charlotte." He patted Barry on the head. "Welcome aboard." And then his fist tightened in Barry's hair and yanked his head back to stretch out Barry's neck, long and pale. Snarling, Victor made as if to lunge down and bite him but stopped at the last possible second. Even from across the room, I could hear Barry whimper.

Victor glared around the room and then back down at Barry. "If you ever lie to me or double-cross me, you'll wish you'd stayed in Texas. Drink from any vampire but Charlotte and I'll send you back to Stan with a bow around what's left of your neck. Understand?" He released his grip and patted Barry's hair back down gently.

"Y-yes, I understand, sir," Barry stuttered, sprawling back a little against Charlotte. Charlotte smiled at him, showing enough fang that I understood that watching the show had turned her on. Ew and ew again. Only then Barry stood up, with Charlotte's help, and I saw that it had excited him too. Even as used to hearing things about people that classified as TMI as I was, that little tidbit made me grimace. I guess Barry would be having a fun time here in Las Vegas after all.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

Despite that fact that after everything we'd been through, we were all dying to go home (no pun intended), it was necessary to miss the flight Mr. Cataliades had arranged for that night due to the fact that the battle and post-battle recovery had us at the hotel far too long. That and Victor wanted us to stay. He was pleased with our reaction to the Fellowship's attack. It seemed to give him the impression that we were on his side. Loyal subjects if not cohorts.

At his request, Pam and Bill (who felt all better) went to the local Fellowship headquarters but it was deserted. The way Victor looked when he found this out, I was even gladder that we'd be staying only one more night.

He made the vampires come upstairs to watch Barry take his official oath of allegiance. I was exempted based on my fragile state of mind. It was Victor's way of thanking me for his throne, I thought. Though Victor was pleased by the bonding between Charlotte and Barry, he wanted to cement Barry to him a little closer. Though since Charlotte was Victor's and Barry was Charlotte's, I guess that meant Barry was Victor's too, in effect. That made me glad Eric's sire was dead. I didn't need any other vampire to expect my obedience. My plate was full.

While they were gone, I took a long shower and shaved my legs. Watching the razor skim over my knee, I thought of Bill's leg and marveled again at the fairy magic we'd had and had no longer. There were plenty of times over the last couple years when I would've given a lot to have one of those little bottles of cure-all. Too bad I'd never known about it when Niall was around but if he ever put in reappearance, I planned to place my order in bulk.

When I got out, I took my time about putting on some yummy smelling lotion and brushing out my tangled mess of hair. The vampires would be back soon; it was nearing sunrise. There was something I needed to do while I was still alone, something that had been eating at me for hours. Wrapping myself in the Fangtasy Island bathrobe that still smelled slightly like Eric, I sat on the edge of the bed and phoned Claude.

It rang, and rang. I was about to give up when someone I didn't know answered with a brusque greeting. "Yes?"

"Uhm, this is Sookie Stackhouse. I'm looking for Claude?"

There was a long pause. "You're the cousin. I'm, ah, a friend of Claude's. He was supposed to meet me here at his house a couple of hours ago but ah, he never showed. There's a lot of broken stuff around, though. Including the front door. And the downstairs phone was all smashed up on the floor, that's why it took me so long to answer. I had to find the portable upstairs."

_Dermot must've sent someone. _"Okay?" I said, at a loss for words.

Claude's friend obviously thought I was under reacting. "I called the cops. In case you wondered."

"Uhm, great. Uh, call me if they, you know, find anything. I'm in the book."I dropped the receiver back on the phone with a thud. My heart sank. _Poor Claude._

I bet they got him to tell them where I was. Or maybe he'd been willing, in anger at me for Claudine's death. Either way, I thought he'd tried to warn me when he got a chance. But they must have caught him with the phone. That made me wonder who Dermot had working for him. Probably paid hirelings. Niall hadn't mentioned any other fairies sticking around. I really, really hoped that was the case.

Just then, the vampires returned. Eric took one look at my face and waved Pam and Bill back out the door. He was at my side unnaturally fast. "What has happened?" he asked, taking my hands.

It didn't take long to fill him in, which made me sad because it seemed like it should have been a bigger story somehow, to honor Claude. Not that I'd ever really liked him much and I was guessing the odds were 50-50 that he had told Dermot where to find me. But he'd outmaneuvered Dermot's henchmen long enough to try to warn me and I was guessing he'd paid for that warning. And he was Claudine's brother. That carried a lot of weight with me. I missed her sorely.

Eric bristled with anger, more at the idea of Claude ratting me out. "We'll go to his house. As soon as we're back in Louisiana, Sookie. We'll figure this out."

I thought he didn't really care much about Claude either way but he cared about me being, there was no doubting that. "Maybe he just went away. He could be laying low, waiting to see what happened out here with Dermot."

"I'm sure that is the case," Eric's words said. His eyes held a different certainty. "Dermot was not easy to kill."

For the first time, I noticed that Eric was looking faded, with sunken eyes and lips white as the inside of an oyster shell. "You overdid it, mister," I told him.

Groaning a little, Eric stretched out on the bed. There was a lot of him to stretch. "There is no doubt of that," he agreed. His blond hair spread out like a halo around his head. That made me smile. Angelic Eric, yeah, right.

I laid beside him, flat on my back. We stared at the ceiling together. Eric started to breathe, matching his breathes to my own. "Cute," I said.

"Yes, I am." He rolled toward me a little, curling up his long legs like a little boy. "May I see your hand?"

The request sounded so odd from Eric, both because he was so formal about it and because he had bothered to request at all rather than just helping himself. "Sure you can," I said and held it out to him.

He nipped a little at the inside of my wrist. I yelped but didn't pull back. Inhaling deeply, he smiled. "Your silver is gone."

"I should drink some more, if we can get it," I said, getting a little nervous. "Victor has Barry as his little bitch toy but I want to be safe."

"We can get it, I am sure. Pam can find anything, anywhere." He sounded like a proud papa, which I guessed he was, in an awkward kind of way. "But first…" He pulled me against him with one arm and nuzzled at my neck.

Mmm, he felt so good against me. "Are you totally, completely, deep-down sure that the silver is gone?"

His eyebrown quirked up. "Do you really think I would take such a risk?"

"I don't know." I pushed my hips against the curve of his. "Did you miss me, all that time you were gone?"

His mouth descended onto mine, rough and taking. When we finally broke apart, me gasping, he cupped my shoulder in his hand and gave me a little shake. "What do you think?"

"A girl likes to hear the words." And needed to catch her breath.

Gentle as a feather, he brushed his lips across my forehead. "I missed you."

"Eric?" My fingers found the edge of his tee-shirt and the smooth skin beneath. "I meant it. What I told Pam. I really did."

Touching my cheekbone with one fingertip, he turned my face so our eyes were centimeters apart. "I know. I love you too."

And then I kissed him, for a change, and we found the rhythms of each other's bodies until dawn came and set us apart again.

*****

Saying good-bye to Barry was the only thing I wanted to do before we left so when I woke up around 2 in the afternoon, I got ready and out the door as quickly as I could. Charlotte's door was unlocked but the room was empty. After a good, long search of the hotel, I gave up and walked down the street to Starbucks. That was where I found him, nursing a venti drip.

When he saw me come in, he shielded but not so quickly that I couldn't sense his displeasure at seeing me. Whether it was because he wanted to be alone or because he didn't want to see me in specific, I had no idea. But I was guessing the latter because along with the displeasure, I sensed a deep embarrassment factor. I'd seen him with his pants down (literally) in Rhodes and then figuratively last night, when he got all hot and bothered by kneeling to Victor.

I really didn't want to see him again, if I was really honest with myself. There was a bit of guilt there, though Barry was a big boy who made his own choice, and it's not like I couldn't done much with Eric and Bill ready to brainwash him into doing things their way. Bigger than that was the way he made me feel: dirty. I didn't like knowing so much about him.

I ignored him while I ordered my tea. Then I sat at the table beside his. He waited for me to speak with restraint that surprised me. Maybe he was maturing. "We're leaving just after sunset," I told him, dumping raw sugar into my tea at a rate that made him wince.

"Good," he blurted out, then colored. "I mean, you'll be glad to get home. And I'll be glad to see what things are like when everything settles around here."

"I don't think Victor will be a terrible king," I said, taking a long drink. "But you watch yourself. Stan's no dummy but Victor's even smarter. He'll see right through your "I read vampires" act. It might be best to tell him that ability comes and goes or something so he doesn't expect you to be able."

"He didn't ever catch on that you can't," Barry retorted.

I gave him a glare. "And aren't you lucky that never came back to bite me in the ass because if it had, you'd be licking Eric's boots right about now."

He had the grace to look abashed. "Sorry about that. I never knew it would come to this."

"Yeah, well, just don't say I didn't warn you if you get on Victor's bad side. Look at what's happened to Eric. There was more Victor in all this than Felipe. And you can't count on Charlotte to protect you from him. That's never gonna happen."

"Of course not. She's his child. And his lover." Barry's eyes held mine with self-rightousness just beaming out of them. I knew he was hoping I'd make a fuss; he was dying for a fight.

I was a little shocked about the lover part but not terribly. "That explains a lot. I figured as much about the child part but didn't know about the other."

"Yeah, it's not common." He shrugged. "She's new to the vampire stuff."

"You might have more experience than she does," I agreed. That and Charlotte was just the type to mess with multiple guys at the same time. Hopefully she'd wise up with Barry around; he did know more than she seemed to. And speaking of his experience… "Are you still trying to get off the V?"

"No." He looked down and wiped his palms on the tops of his jeans. "But I'm only using it from Charlotte, like Victor said. And then, down the road, who knows. Being bonded isn't so bad. There are plenty of worse positions I could be in."

I thought of Eric in the silver casket. Bobby Burnham with his life gushing out of him. Quinn and Frannie and their poor mother. I thought of Sophie-Anne and Cleo and all the others who'd had their long lives ended for Victor's love of power.

Standing up, I took my tea to-go. "Yeah, you are a lucky guy, Barry."

*****

By the time Eric woke up, my bag was packed. I had showered and neatened up the room. Eric woke up grumpy. I was kneeling at the minifridge when he sat up, so quickly that the motion startled me when I saw it in my peripheral vision. I jumped, knocking my knee on the fridge door. "Ouch!"

He gave me a grunt that sounded somewhat like "sorry".

"Bad dream?" I asked, rubbing my sore leg.

"I never dream. Just ready to be back home. With you." He kissed me on the top of my head as he walked into the bathroom like a sleepwalker. I heard the shower start a moment later.

As I was stripping the bed, Bill came in. He tugged on the sheet in the corner where it had stuck so I could pull it off the rest of the way. "Thanks," I said, folding the blanket.

"I came to tell you good-bye," he said, straight to the point as usual.

I stopped folding. "Why?"

"Because if I don't get away from you for a while, long enough to get past these emotions, sooner or later I will do something that will lead Eric to kill me. And, as long as you are his, he would be within his rights to do so."

_Uh…_ "Maybe a better question would have been, 'where'."

"Seattle," he said.

I raised one eyebrow at him and waited.

"Seattle, for real this time," he expanded. "I own a home there, from before. And then perhaps after a time, I will return here and serve in Victor's entourage. I did enjoy Sophie-Anne's court once. Victor is an interesting man. He will make a decent king."

"Oh. Yeah." I could not think of a single thing to say, no matter how hard I tried. My mind was a big, open space. A desert of thoughtlessness.

He was close to me before I could see him start to move. _Vampires._ Raising one hand, he touched my lower lip with the tip of his index finger. "Sookie…"

"Bill…" This was so uncomfortable. We heard the shower turn off in the bathroom. I knew Eric was listening and I was relieved. One less story to have to relay. "Bill, keep in touch, you hear? I'll miss you while you're gone."

"Close your eyes," he whispered.

I did, and felt his kiss against my closed lips just a half-second before I heard the door shut as he left the room. As he left me, for good this time. When I opened my eyes, there was no sign he'd been there at all apart from the tingling sensation I felt from his mouth.

Eric opened the other door and came out in a fog of steam, naked as David. He knew everything and I was grateful. "Hey," I said, very glad to see him.

"Sookie…" He felt several things at once, I could tell through the bond. And I could also see he was trying very hard to allow only those emotions I'd like best show in his eyes. Pity, he really did feel. But there was also a deep sense of satisfaction there. He gave in to it and grinned.

I couldn't begrudge him it. He'd been pretty patient, for a Viking, for a vampire, for anyone in love. "Bill's gone," I said needlessly. "He didn't want to be near me."

Eric toweled himself dry. Watching him do this was a treat. "It wasn't just you. Bill could never have stayed to serve me," he said. "He has been chafing at my authority for quite some time now."

"He told me once that you are a good man." I picked up the blanket from the floor where it had slipped and finished folding it. "Or something to that end, anyway. This was way back when I first met you. I can't remember exactly what Bill's words were. But I do remember that he told me you were rumored to be great in the … in bed."

It amazes me that I still blush easily sometimes, after all I've experienced. But I did blush at that and sort of regretted saying it. It seemed unfair to Bill and somehow, to Eric as well, though I guess he didn't mind. Like I was giving away a weakness of Bill's and rubbing my past in Eric's face at the same time.

Mostly though, it was just me babbling on because I was stung inside. I didn't want to care that Bill was leaving but I did nonetheless. It wasn't that I wanted to be back with him but rather that I felt bad that I didn't want to. I wanted to give him what he wanted because I cared about him. But I couldn't give him me just to make him happy when it wasn't what I wanted for myself. For a night, maybe, if I didn't let myself think about the past or the future. But I just wasn't built that way. I cared about him but I knew that if we got back together, I'd always be waiting for the day when I'd learn what it was about me that had made it so easy for him to leave me before. Waiting for him to walk out again.

Eric seemed to understand all of this, whether because of the bond or by his centuries of experience with the relationships between people, I wasn't sure. As usual, he skipped over the platitudes and went right for the heart of the matter. "I will never, ever, ever leave you, Sookie," he said. He tossed his towel on the naked bed and took the blanket from my hands. Setting it neatly on the end of the bed, he took me by the shoulders. It was hard to meet his eyes; his blue stare was that passionate. He gave me a little shake. "Never. I've lived long enough to know when I have found something of real value. It's not Bill's fault that he has not."

He kissed me then, softly. Against my mouth, he said, "You are also great in bed."

I kicked him in the ankle. "Be sweet again."

And so he kissed me again. "You have the most beautiful breasts."

I aimed for the other ankle. "Sweet," I said firmly.

Eric smiled with his whole face. Wrapping his arms around me, he said, "You are the only woman in the world I would choose for my wife, over centuries and many different countries. You and you alone. Forever- and no one means forever like a vampire of my age." And then he kissed me again.

After I could breathe, I hugged him tightly to me. "That was definitely sweet."

Eric tugged me by a hand toward the bed. "I can always find it in me to be sweet to you."

Of course, he meant that in more ways than one. And he was sweet to me, many times over, until Pam knocked loudly on the door.

"Put your clothes on!" she called from the hallway. I couldn't hear her well enough to make out the words through the wall but Eric told me.

"Oh Pam," I mumbled as I pulled on my shorts. I wasn't really that embarrassed though I guess I should have been.

Eric pulled on his jeans and tee-shirt (commando, I noted) and said, in a normal voice, "Come in, Pam." I would have shouted even knowing she had super hearing, just out of habit.

Pam entered with her trim suitcase in hand. "Mr. Cataliades called the hotel," she said, taking in our tousled hair with an impish wink at me. "They put his call through to your room but you were too _busy_ to answer, apparently."

Eric grinned. I said, "When did the phone ring?" His grin grew and grew until I got my nervous smile going in response. Now I was embarrassed. "Never mind," I said.

"The plane is waiting for us at the airport," Pam said, enjoying the hell out of my discomfort. "If you two can control yourselves long enough to fly home, we can leave now."

"Victor?" Eric asked, the smile fading from his face in an instant.

Pam shook her head. "Done," she said.

"What are you talking abo…. Wait a minute, do I want to know?" Something about the way they were looking at each other made me think I really did not.

Pam picked up my suitcase and handed it to me. "Nothing, Sookie. We only mean that Victor does not require our attendance upstairs before we leave."

Like hell that was all. "Eric?"

Through the bond, I felt his satisfaction. "Have you seen Barry today, while we were in our daytime rest?"

"Yeah…"

"Did you notice he was not with Charlotte?"

"Yeah, because Charlotte wasn't in her room when I went to find him." I remembered the cold look Eric had gotten when Charlotte had addressed me last night after the battle. I didn't really want to know but then… I did at the same time. "What did you do?"

"She is being fairly punished," Pam said. "No vampire should ever inflict that silver tincture upon another. Orders or no orders, it is an atrocity. Victor agreed … after some persuasion."

I wondered if the vampires had their own Geneva Convention someplace, written rules on what was allowable for torture and what was not. And I wondered what it would take to persuade Victor to torture his own child. Not that Bill's mommy dearest had found that difficult but I could have sworn Victor felt real affection for Charlotte.

Eric took my suitcase from me and led me out the door. "Stan owed me a favor. I cashed that in when I maneuvered Barry into Victor's court. Or, rather, when you did. However, Victor never knew about my owed favor to begin with and thus when I offered to allow you- now, don't get that look, it is simply court-speak- to give Barry extra training to Victor's own benefit, he was willing to give me a favor in return."

"Couldn't he have just commanded you to "allow" me to train Barry?"

"Well, yes." Eric grinned. "Is it my fault that Victor is not yet thinking like a king at all times?"

_Because he's just a baby king. _"Yeah, but Charlotte isn't just his child, they are lovers too."

"Don't worry about Charlotte, dear one. Her punishment is fair."

I gave him a questioning look despite my better judgment that told me I should just leave well enough alone.

Closing the door behind us, Eric said, "She gets to take a couple doses of the tincture herself. I doubt she'll ever find it an acceptable penalty again."

I felt a little bit bad for Charlotte- she was right in that she was only following orders. But then I remembered Eric in that damn casket. His face… and I held his hand and walked out of Fangstasy Island with no regrets.

*****

It was almost dawn by the time I got home. Eric came with me. He didn't want me to drive back alone. And he wanted to make sure nothing ugly had happened to my house while I'd been away. It was unfair when he said I attracted trouble like a moth to the flame when half that trouble had followed him into my life but that was Eric.

The house was quiet and dark. My room was not light-tight so I made sure the hidey hole was still in good shape. It was, of course, fine. Eric checked out the house, room by room, before he went inside for the day. I knew he was thinking about Claude, as was I. Neither of us mentioned his name, as if saying it would conjure up trouble. We didn't say much at all. I think we were both done in.

It felt good to be home, so good that I walked room to room myself, just happy to be able to be there. I thought about Felipe, who would have taken me away from here for good. And then I stretched out on my own bed with its familiar feel and smell and closed my eyes and forbade myself to think about anything related to Nevada for a good, long while.

Yeah, that lasted all of ten minutes. I was drifting off to sleep when my phone rang. It was Jason, who'd heard from someone who'd heard from someone who'd seen me driving into town. Jason was on his way to bed after a night in his panther form. I'd been too distracted to realize the moon was full. He wanted an explanation for my weirdly abrupt absence but I put him off.

Sam phoned minutes later. He was harder to put off. "Eric is behind all of this" seemed to be his biggest annoyance. I apologized up one side and down the other for leaving him stuck for a barmaid. He didn't care about that- or, if he did, he wasn't claiming it right then. I told him I'd work that night.

After we hung up, I waited, staring at the phone, half-expecting someone else to call and get all indignant at me. Amelia (though she wouldn't know anything) or Calvin (though he wouldn't consider it his business). When it didn't ring, I headed back to bed.

The last thing that crossed my mind before I went to sleep was to wonder if Claudine could see me from wherever the Summerlands were. And if she knew what had happened to her brother.

*****

Amelia did call but not for a wonderful eight hours, during which time I slept harder than a corpse. She'd been trying to call for days, she told me, and wanted to know why I hadn't called her back. Looking at the answering machine, I saw it blinking 11 over and over at me. I told her I'd call her back later but she said not to bother, that she was on her way over.

Jason had left the first message, Sam the second. I erased both without listening to them, once I heard who'd left them. Jason's was casual but Sam's was pretty tense. He must have left it right after he got my message about leaving town. There were a few hang-ups and four messages from Amelia. One from Blockbuster, wanting their copy of The 13th Warrior back (and fine by me).

Realizing that Amelia would arrive in about an hour or so and I still needed to shower and unpack and clean out the fridge (since my quick departure had left a bunch of food in there that probably needed a toss), I stripped off my shirt as I headed to my bathroom. My dirty clothes went directly into the hamper. They smelled like I'd been sweating all night, probably thanks to unsettled dreams with Charlotte's silver-suffered face interchanging with Eric's.

Flipping on the bathroom light, I stuck my hand behind the shower curtain and turned on the water to warm while I brushed my teeth and stuck my hair up into a high ponytail. No time to wash and dry it now so it could wait. I pulled back the shower curtain and stepped inside… and then I yelped and hopped back out.

There was something gritty coating the bottom of the bathtub. Something… I knelt down at the side of the tub and touched it with my fingers. In the light of the florescent bulbs, the grit had some sparkle to it.

I screamed. Loudly. And smacked my hand on the tap in my haste to rinse it off. It was dead fairy dust. I'd found Claude, I was certain of it. Who else could it have been? And someone had killed him in my bathtub.


	10. Chapter 10

**This is the final chapter. Thank you all for reading. I've had a lot of fun writing this.**

**Chapter Ten**

There aren't any good guidelines to tell a person how to deal with a bathtub full of fairy ashes. Particularly when the ashes had formerly been a cousin who may or may not have aided the bad guys but certainly tried to come through with a warning.

I dried my hands and considered my options. The simplest thing to do would be to run the ashes down the drain. But that seemed akin to flushing a goldfish and remembering Claude's self-love and my own love for poor Claudine, I couldn't do it. I could let them dry and scoop them out. Or vacuum them but that didn't seem right either. Disrespectful. This was my cousin Claude (I assumed), not a dust bunny.

You think I might have given more thought to the nitty gritty details, such as how Claude ended up dying in my tub and who might have done him in. But in that minute, I was dealing with the present only. I think that was my self-preservation instinct kicking in. It had been one hell of a week.

After thinking things through for another minute, I decided that rinsing Claude's ashes down the drain was the best way to go after all. It was not easy to do. Picturing Claude's beautiful, haughty face, I held the shower head in my hand and sent up a prayer that was half-Christian and half-pagan. I hoped very much that the lord was listening… or that Claudine was, in the Summerlands, and that she and her little baby were happy to greet Claude when he got there.

Once the tub was clean, I dried my hands and wrapped my bathrobe around myself. It says something about my state of mind that I'd taken care of Claude's ashes before I remembered that I was nude. It was good that Eric was asleep, as much as I would have loved to have his help right then. He wouldn't like the way I felt and even though we'd gotten pretty good at blocking the bond, I was not capable of such shielding right then. I was so cold.

Someone had been in my home. They had murdered Claude, who had superhuman strength and was, though not indestructible, certainly difficult to kill. How they'd gotten him here to begin with was another puzzle. Why my house?

I wandered into the spare bedroom, not really thinking about being closer to Eric but that was definitely the impulse. I'd checked out the closet before he'd gone into the hidey hole for the day but hadn't really looked around the room. Only now did I notice the neatly folded pile of clothing on the end of the dresser. Black jeans. A white teeshirt in a silky material. Red silk boxers reminiscent of the ones Eric was wearing when I found him with amnesia that cold night. Black dress socks. Looking down, I saw a pair of expensive-looking black men's shoes.

They must have belonged to Claude. I perched on the edge of the bed, staring at the clothing. I guess he'd come by to take a bath? Huh? That made no sense. Why would he come to my house, of all places.

Because he'd been attacked in his own home and he knew mine was empty and, with Dermot headed for Las Vegas to find me, probably the safest house in town. And because, maybe, he felt bad for sending Dermot my way?

That might have been wishful thinking. But it could have been the truth. He could have felt badly about it all and been staying here so that he could tell me so. Or so that he could keep tabs on when I got back. Or something.

The thing was, I was no Velma. Not that I was stupid. Far from. But I could think up a million reasons for Claude to have been taking a bath at my house and none of them made any more sense than the others. It was so strange, there couldn't be a good answer, not for sure. At least, none I'd know without talking with Claude himself and that was not going to happen.

It was also vaguely possible that the ashes weren't Claude's. But they were definitely the same fairy ashes I'd seen in my driveway after killing the other fairy with my garden tool. Hard to mistake those. And I didn't know of any other fairies left on this side of the door.

Which didn't mean that none existed. But if Claude was the only fairy I knew here, it seemed pretty likely that those ashes belonged to him, not to some unknown fairy.

Ugh. I rubbed my eyes with my fists. This was getting me nowhere fast. I thought about phoning Claude's friend who I'd talked to the night before. But I didn't even know the guy's name.

I heard tires pull up in the driveway. Amelia, I guessed, and went to the front door, tightening the belt of my bathrobe as I walked. She was driving a new car, powder blue with tan interior and no top. It looked like a car you'd see in a commercial set on a beach somewhere, a car for having fun, for relaxing. Amelia, however, was neither relaxed nor having fun. In fact, she looked downright gloomy.

Uh-oh, I thought as I waited in the doorway for her. This better not be more bad news.

"Sookie!" She smiled when she saw me but there was something odd to it, like she was very glad to see me but not at the same time.

"Hey," I said, waiting for her to get out of her car. She held up one fingers and went to open the truck. She brought out an envelope, legal sized.

"Let's sit down inside," I suggested. I held open the door for her and after a brief hesitation, she came up to me and walked inside.

While she made herself at home in the living room, I detoured through the kitchen and brought her out a can of Coke. No glass because I knew she preferred to slum it and drink straight from the can. She didn't touch the soda at all, just left it on the coffee table where I'd set it. I'd never known Amelia to be hard up for words but she was searching for them. I could hear her searching but nothing I heard made sense. Just lots of "I hope she…" and "how do I…" thoughts that ended in "arrg!"

"Just spit it out," I said. It was rude but I was getting scared. "I think Claude might be … I mean, I think he is dead."

"You'd be right," she said. "I'm so sorry, Sookie."

I looked down at my lap where my hands were clasped hard together. "Yeah. Well. I thought so but… well." Then it occurred to me that Amelia had only the most basic of relationships with Claude. "How do you know?"

"You know how my dad was doing business with Felipe through Sandy?"

I gaped at her for a moment; it was almost hard to make sense of what she was saying, it seemed so unrelated. "Sandy. Yeah, I knew about that."

"Sandy dropped this off for you last night. She said that she'd be by to see Eric once you all got home."

She pushed the envelope towards me. When I opened it, I nearly dropped it back down, I was so shocked. "This is Claude's will. I didn't know fairies bothered with these things."

"I guess they do. And, you know, Claude put a lot of effort into passing for human and his club was worth a good chunk."

I could hear her wondering just how much the club might be worth. It made me a little queasy that she could think about business at a time like this.

It was also weird, the whole thing, just strange. "Why did Sandy, of all people, drop this off?"

Amelia got that nervous look back. "You should really ask her. I don't really know."

From her mind, I picked up that she was telling me the truth… mostly. She didn't really know but her dad had speculated that the vampires were involved in Claude's death. Then there was strangeness about her, especially considering she'd always been such a strong projector. I felt like I was hearing her thoughts through a screen. Maybe it was me, not her. Maybe it was grief.

And then I realized that Claude had called the vampire king's hotel, which probably had caller ID, knowing how Victor operated. And that they could have put two and two together to equal four just as I did, if they had known that Dermot the fairy had arrived in conjunction with the Fellowship's attack that harmed the king. King Victor. But I hadn't thought they'd know about Dermot.

Then I remembered Barry.

Never underestimate vampires. Never, never. I told this to myself in a bewildered way as realizations hit me, one after another, clunk, clunk, clunk. Maybe Claude had come here of his own free will or maybe he'd been coerced somehow. But either way, he'd ended up at my house and the vampires had done this. Sandy herself? Or had she sent someone else. One of the new Vegas vamps, probably, one she'd known from before and trusted as much as vampires ever trusted one another. Or maybe even Bubba. I hoped not. And hey, how come Eric hadn't mentioned smelling vampires or a fairy in the house last night?

"Please excuse me," I told Amelia. I went quickly to the bathroom and began to search. The last place I looked was the trash can and that is where I found it. A heavy, dull knife I would have bet my life was made out of iron.

*****

After that, there was nothing left to do but wait for Eric to wake up and Sandy to arrive when she learned he was here. I didn't know Sandy well. She'd always given me the impression of incredible efficiency and Eric considered her formidable. That was enough for me to step warily around her.

I called Sam and left him a message, telling him I wouldn't be able to work quite yet. When Eric woke up, I let Amelia tell him what had happened. I just couldn't stand to think of it all again. While she talked, I made myself busy in the kitchen. By the time I'd put together a tray containing a mug of heated True Blood plus two sandwiches for Amelia and myself, she'd finished talking and Eric was leaning back in his chair with his calculating look.

Amelia picked up her sandwich and started on it but I just looked at mine. "What do you think?" I asked Eric, passing him the mug.

He took a drink and nodded thanks at me. "I think Victor should have mentioned this to me while we were still in Las Vegas. And I think that if I were in his shoes, I wouldn't have told us a thing either."

"Why?"

"Victor is a new king and very green for all his cleverness. Keeping this to himself serves several purposes. It places Sandy in a position above me, for she is handling something that would be the job of the highest ranking vampire. She is Victor's child and thus obedient to him."

Sandy was Victor's too? How many kids did this guy have?

Eric went on. "Victor has always been forward-thinking. He knew that returning home to this would unsettle you and thus me. He would have liked that. No king wants to be predictable."

I thought of the feeling of Claude's ashes between my toes and wanted to puke. "Well, it was definitely a surprise."

"And then, he also must have felt Claude deserved to die for his role in leading the Dermot- and the Fellowship- to Victor."

"But Dermot wouldn't have bothered with Victor, except that he was between Dermot and me."

"Dear one, why would Victor care? He ended up with his head dented in, remember? No king will stand for that. That and you belong to Victor in a way. Royalty serve two functions. We obey them and they protect us. By leading Dermot to attack you, his subject to whom he's sworn protection when Felipe was king, Claude got on Victor's bad side."

Amelia nodded along. "Victor's not a dumb guy at all. That makes a lot of sense."

"Yeah, if you are brutal." I nudged my sandwich closer to Amelia. There was no way I could eat right then. "Poor Claude. He didn't deserve that."

"You once said we vampires are like lions. Remember that, Sookie. We have our own laws, our own justice." Eric finished his True Blood with one big gulp. "And the fae are even less civilized than the vampires. I'm sure Claude would have done the same in Victor's position, had he the king's power."

Silly me. So human. I knew that wasn't what Eric meant but all I could think of was Claudine. This felt like losing her all over again. I stood up. "You know what, you guys? I'm really needing you both to go for a while."

Amelia picked up her sandwich and headed for the door without any hesitation. "I'm real sorry, Sookie, about your cousin." There was still something odd about her, besides her strangely uncaring reaction to Claude's death. She felt bad for my pain, I could read that clearly enough, but there was something she wasn't telling me, some gray area inside her mind. I could have probed more deeply but I didn't want to deal with whatever drama she'd fallen into while I was gone.

"Thanks," I said and watched her go.

When the door clicked shut, I considered Eric. He was considering me right back, his head tilted slightly to the side. "Ask," he said, like a challenge.

"What did you smell last night? Or sense. Or whatever." It wasn't that I didn't trust Eric, really. It was that I didn't always understand his reasons for doing things and I knew he was perfectly capable of hiding things from me if he thought it necessary.

He knew this was coming. "Fairy. But I figured that Dermot had come here looking for you before he went to Claude. Otherwise, how would he know you were not at home? I didn't tell you because you were about to go to sleep and knowing he had been in your home would have disturbed your rest. I'm not sorry for that." He swirled the last drops of True Blood around in the bottom of his mug. "I didn't look inside the bathtub. Bathroom, yes. Bathtub, no. For that, I am sorry and do apologize."

"Eric, I stepped in my cousin. I am tired and sad and confused and seriously in need of a wash that I can't get because there is still… residue… in my shower." I pushed my fist against my stomach, feeling queasy. "And I think Sandy will be here soon, once Pam tells her you're here."

In his quick, vampire way, Eric leapt to his feet. "Wait here."

I heard him fussing down the hallway. Cabinets opened and shut. Water ran in the bathroom. Curling up in my hair, I rested my cheek against the upholstered back.

When he came back, he wore only his jeans. The way he moved reminded me that he was a warrior but his face was gentle when he saw me. "Come here," he said, holding out a hand to lift me from my seat.

He led me down the hallway by the hand and then into the bathroom. Inside, he'd lit a candle. With a sweep of his arm, he brushed back the shower curtain. The smell of vinegar told me he'd found the homemade cleaner that Amelia had left behind when she moved out. "Not a smear," he said quietly. "And the candle is to honor his spirit."

Touched, I reached up my hand to cup his cheek. "I never would have thought you'd consider Claude's spirit."

His eyes were black in the candlelight. "Sookie, I know that _you_ would."

With a single step forward, I pressed against him and laid my head on his solid chest. "I want to thank you."  
He stroked my hair. "Wash up. Sandy will be here soon."

*****

I felt a lot better after my shower though I admit, stepping back into that tub was not as easy as it sounds. While I dressed, Eric sat on my bed, watching me. Fair enough, I figured, since I'd done my own share of ogling him.

I threw on an old sundress, long and worn, its cotton smelling of the sachet I kept in my closet. Then I started on my damp mass of hair but Eric took the brush from my hand. He worked gently but ably through the tangles. He even went into the bathroom for the spray detangler. It felt so good, I was practically purring by the time we heard Sandy's sharp rap on the front door.

I opened the door and was happy to see Pam had accompanied Sandy. "Hi," I said, feeling strangely shy. I remembered, at the last second, that I needed to invite her in with words. "Please do come inside."

Pam let Sandy walk in, in deference to her status, I assumed. That reminded me to be careful. Eric had stepped carefully around Sandy even before we'd gone to Vegas. I wondered what the latest regime change meant for Sandy- good things, apparently- and why, exactly, she was here.

I heated up True Blood for the vampires while they sat around the living room, chatting about things I couldn't hear. When I brought out the bottles on a tray, Eric smiled at me and said thank you. Pam nodded her head in thanks. Sandy didn't even look at me. If the couch had gotten up and made her a drink, she would have treated it as graciously as she treated me.

That's about when I figured out that I wasn't needed. It finally dawned on me that cousin or not, Claude had been responsible, in part, for Bill losing his leg, Victor's dented head and my own near-strangulation. Sandy wasn't there to tell me a damn thing. She was here to rub in Eric's face the fact that she'd taken care of the Claude business without any input from him. The only reason she'd even come out to my house was because Eric happened to be there.

So, heck, if Eric wanted to deal with this business, that was fine by me. I'd had enough vampire crap for one month, thank you very much. "I'm just gonna go take care of some stuff in the bedroom," I said, patting Eric's hand. "Y'all make yourselves at home. Eric, let me know if you need me for anything at all."

"Are you sure, Sookie?" Eric turned his hand over to clasp mine. "You could stay."

I grinned at him, my nervous one, and shook my head. "Honest, I'm fine."

Sandy waved a hand at me. Dismissed! She didn't really even look my way. "Eric," she said, "Let's get on to business." I noticed she'd left her True Blood untouched. She didn't trust us.

Pam raised one eyebrow at me. I knew she thought Sandy walked around with a stick up her you-know-what. So when Pam raised her index finger and shot a side-glance in Sandy's direction, I knew exactly what she meant and had to hurry from the room in order not to laugh. That Pam, wicked in more ways than one.

I know eavesdropping is rude but hey, Sandy had been rude first. I left the bedroom door open and sat just inside, listening with all my might.

Sandy cleared her throat. "You know of the death of the fairy Claude."

"Yes, the witch brought my wife his paperwork." Eric sounded so formal. I wasn't sure calling me his wife was so bad when it came to Victor's people. It might save me from any return trips to Vegas.

"Here is what happened. Victor gave me the order for the fairy's death after the fairy caused the king to become injured. I sent Rasul and Indira to complete the execution." She paused. "Oh, and Bubba asked to help."

"Bubba has a fondness for Sookie," Pam said.

"I'm told the fairy was disposed of. As a favor to you, Eric, I saw to the delivery of his papers myself. Mr. Cataliades was quite helpful."

_Yeah, he knows who butters his bread. _Mr. Cataliades was like Eric in this one way: pragmatic to a fault. He'd weathered the regime change like a pro- of course, he probably was. I had no idea how old he might be or how many regime changes he might have gone through.

There was a long moment of silence in the living room. Then Eric spoke. "You were told the fairy was executed. You didn't see it yourself?"

"Do you have reason to doubt your underlings?" Sandy shot back.

"Absolutely not." But he was surprised that Sandy trusted them. I wasn't surprised at all. Sandy was used to being obeyed as smartly as she obeyed Victor.

Another silence fell. I fidgeted with the hem of my sleeve. Finally, Pam broke what seemed from my perspective to be an awkward moment. "If that is all, my master needs to rest. He is still healing from his ordeal in Nevada."

Whoo boy, I could feel Eric's irritation loud and clear at Pam's words. If I were her, I'd duck the minute Sandy was out the door. But I heard the last pleasantries exchanged and the door shut and locked and not only did Eric not say a word, the feeling I got from him through the bond was strange. He felt preoccupied.

But I was curious. I came out to the living room and sat next to Eric on the couch. Pam reclined in the armchair, looking like she was thinking hard.

"Why did you say that about Eric?" I asked her, leaning a little against Eric's arm. He, too, looked pensive.

"I needed her to leave and I thought it would benefit us if she underestimated Eric for a while." Pam shrugged. "It seemed like the right thing to do. Never show your fangs until you're ready to bite."

"So it was Rasul and Indira and Bubba who killed Claude?" It was hard to imagine Elvis killing my cousin but I'd seen more surprising things in my time.

"It does appear that way," Eric said. But the preoccupied feeling remained with me when I focused on our bond and there was a little vertical crease between his eyebrows that told me there was more going on inside his head than he was ready to share.

I didn't want to think that Rasul and Bubba had played a part in Claude's murder. I liked them. And I liked Indira though I didn't know her well.

"So," I said, feeling like the dummy in the classroom, saying what must be obvious to everyone else, "How did Claude's ashes get in my bathtub?"

"I did not smell vampire in your house last night," Eric said. "I suppose I could have missed it. I am not yet fully back to myself."

The vampires both perked up suddenly and a few moments later, I heard what they heard: a car was coming up the drive. A moment later, Amelia came in through the door. I think we were all two parts wary and one part exhausted because none of us moved. She came in with a bounce in her step, seeming much happier than she had just a little while earlier.

"Sookie, I have to tell you something," she said, beaming from ear to ear. "I'm so sorry that this got so crazy but I had to keep it a secret from you until after you talked to Sandy… and you know how hard that is for me to do!"

Considering I could tell what she'd had for breakfast due to her mental broadcasting, I agreed.

"So Octavia and I did a spell to keep my thoughts shielded. I think it must have worked?"

"I guess it did… considering I haven't got a clue what it is you're talking about." Eric threaded his arm through mine. I think he felt my nervousness.

Amelia perched on the coffee table, her knees nearly touching mine. "Bubba likes you, Sookie, a lot. Not like _that_, a lot, but a lot regardless. He didn't feel right about killing off your blood relative like that without even talking with you first. So he came here to find you. No one told him you were gone. I'd come over to collect my mail and a few other things-"

I got a clear mental picture of a necklace I knew Tray had given her. I winced.

She cleared her throat. "Anyway. I got him talking because I knew it wasn't likely he'd just dropped by for a visit, especially with you mysteriously gone. And he told me what his conflict was. Once I told him how fond you were of Claude and how you haven't got anyone else, basically, except your shiftless brother… sorry, but it's true! Bubba took matters into his own hands."

"Are you saying Bubba didn't kill Claude?"

"No, Claude's fine," Amelia said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "He's left town for good though. That's why he didn't mind you inheriting his strip club. I mean, it's way better for him if the vampires all think he's dead."

My mind was spinning. I hugged Eric's arm to me, trying to figure out what to think about first. Claude left town after helping to fake his own death. Claude was alive. Claude… left me a strip club? I owned a strip club? Me?

I must have looked at wide-eyed as I felt because Amelia patted my knee. "Don't worry, Sookie. Claude's fine and I'll help you figure out what to do with his club."

Pam shook her head. "The fairy dust in the bath tub?"

"Faked," Amelia said. "Octavia and I created it. We made a fake weapon too. Well, it's a real weapon but it's not iron. We just made it appear that way."

I imagined the two of them stirring fake fairy corpse dust in a big, black cauldron, cackling, wearing pointy, black hats. It made me smile.

Amelia took my smile for a good sign. "I'm so glad you're not mad at me!"

"I am mad at you!" I told her. "We've had a horrible time in Nevada, a horrible time before we went to Nevada and we came home to a horrible time just stepping in to take a shower! You couldn't have left them someplace else?"

She had the grace to look ashamed. "I know, I know, but I didn't know what to do. I had to stay in New Orleans because we were worried- Claude was worried- that too much commotion at your place would capture Sandy's attention. As it was, she considered all of this a minor matter. So Claude brought the fake ashes here himself, on his way out of town."

Read: Claude was pissed off with me and wanted to get back at me. I was betting that was the case. From the way Eric's lips tightened, I knew he thought so as well.

"And that was why the dust smelled of fairy," Eric surmised. "Because Claude handled them enough to put his own scent on them."

"Enough that when Bubba showed the ashes to Rasul and Indira in Shreveport before Claude brought them here, they had no doubts at all."

"And you were going to tell us this?" Pam asked, a definite edge to her tone.

Amelia scooted back a little so she could look Pam in the face. "Oh, yeah. But if you'd known before, then Sandy might not have been fooled. This was the plan that Claude and Bubba and I came up with."

I couldn't help feeling surprised. It seemed very clever for them to have thought up but then, Claude was never stupid (just shallow) and Bubba had surprising flashes of who he might have been, every now and then. Amelia wasn't a genius but she wasn't dumb either, just occasionally careless. But she was devious at the strangest moments. And she had put herself at risk of Sandy's ire in order to pull this whole thing off. Thank the lord for Bubba!

Rubbing my face with my palms, I sighed. And yawned. I had to give this all time to settle in.

Eric rose to his feet. He didn't mean to loom over us but it's hard not to when you're as tall as he and we were all sitting down. "Everyone but Sookie, out," he said, in a voice that tolerated no arguments.

Pam was up and tugging Amelia out of the front door by one wrist faster that I could say, "Bye."

I didn't get up. Pressing the heels of my hands into my eyes felt strangely good, as if the pressure could take me away from this whole mess for a minute. I felt Eric's large hand on the top of my head. "I'm fine," I told him but it came out sort of whiny.

"Sure you are," he said. With one fast movement, he swooped down and lifted me into his arms, cradle-style. "Come with me."

_Like I had a lot of choice in the matter ._ "Eric," I said as he took me into my bedroom and set me carefully onto the bed. "What on earth am I going to do with a strip club?"

"Oh, I have one or two ideas," he said. He grabbed my ankles and tugged so I fell back onto the mattress. "Your hair looks like a golden frame," he said, his 'r' just a little accented. The sound of it made me close my eyes. It was sexy and more than that, it made me feel good, deep-down, that he was so affected by me.

"I need to think, Eric. Really. I need to… oh…" His hands tugged down my shorts.

"You don't need to do a single thing, Sookie. All is well with your world, and well enough with mine. You have done enough. Now it is time I say thank you."

I didn't think another useful thought that night.

**/End**


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